Pokewars
by tmb1112
Summary: A war tears apart the Hoenn region and leaves two children without homes or anyone to go back to. Swearing vengeance on the people who killed their families, Billy now needs to train to be able to protect his friend and get his revenge. T- for violence and sad themes.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Pokemon

"Hey Billy wait up," the nine year old girl chased after the twelve year old. He wasn't too far ahead of her but his strides seemed to increase in length as she approached.

"What do you want?" He asked annoyed as the girl got alongside him. Turning his head, he saw two boys in his grade snickering and pointing from the sidewalk across the street.

"Why don't you ever want to walk with me back home, we live next door to each other and your mom said you would," she pouted.

"Alright alright, calm down Jenny," once they got past the two boys watching them, Billy reached down and grabbed the little girl's hand. "Let's go," they started running and got home a few minutes later.

"Thanks Billy," she called over as she reached her front door. The boy waved to her and then stepped towards his own house. It seemed oddly calm today, William West looked around the sky and saw a flock of birds but he couldn't make out what species they were. _Hmm,_ he looked around his front yard and didn't even see any bugs or rodents walking around.

He walked inside and heard his mom call his name from the kitchen. "Hey mom I'm home," he dropped his backpack on the couch and went into the kitchen where his mom opened up the oven and a puff of black smoke flew out and hit him straight in the face. Both of them coughed for a couple seconds as they made their way out of the kitchen.

Mrs. West started laughing as the smoke alarm went off, "Sorry honey, but could you go get us a pizza from town. I know you just got home, but..."

"I get it," he waved a hand at his mom showing it wasn't a big deal. "Be home in a jiffy," he went to the door but his mom called him again, "what?" he asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," she smiled at her son, "I just wanted to tell you that I love you." Billy went red at the cheeks and smiled.

"I love you too mom," he waved once more then ran out the door and started jogging back down the street. He headed to his favorite pizzeria and as he was waiting for his pie to come out he overheard a conversation at the table next to him.

"Did you hear? The siege on Slateport just finished." Billy listened closer.

"So you mean," the woman asked and the man nodded his head.

"It's a shame, but the Solars are losing ground fast. It seems like we're going to wind up all being controlled by the Nimbus," the man faded out and Billy realized the man was glaring at him. He was making it too obvious that he was eavesdropping and was thankful that the cashier chose that second to ring him up.

On the way home, Billy wasn't running because he had a pizza pie in his hand. Besides wondering whether or not his dad was home yet, he was also thinking about the war. He never wanted it to last until he was older but if a side was to win he would've chose the Solars.

The majority of his town felt the same way but they'd been able to keep out of the war because of their location far from any major city. Wyrville had a population of only eight thousand.

As Billy rounded the corner of his street he heard birds squeaking above him and saw a large flock of Pidgeys, he thought about it and that was the same group he'd seen earlier.

They circled the sky once, then a second time, _They're acting really weird. _Billy watched as they finished circling a third time and then an explosion sounded. He was so shocked that he dropped the pizza box on the sidewalk and it flipped over spilling its contents.

He looked back into town and saw smoke rising from the direction of main street. Suddenly a red light flashed and a huge creature formed in the middle of the town. _It's over. Why would they come here?_ He started stumbling backwards and fell on his butt.

More red lights were flashing all around town and huge creatures were appearing. One of them he recognized was a Dragonite, much larger than he'd learned it was, this one towered above every building in town and brought up a foot before slamming it down right on top of Billy's favorite pizzeria.

Reality kicked in and William jumped to his feet starting to run down the block to get home as soon as possible. He heard more explosions and looked up to see Pidgeottos and Fearows dropping spherical objects down onto houses. Looking closer he saw they were actually Electrodes and Golems being dropped and then self-destructing once they hit the ground.

He shook his head trying to clear all the thoughts that were zipping through it. All that mattered was getting home and making sure his mom was safe, _and maybe Jenny and her folks too._

His house was coming up quick and he fumbled with the latch on his gate. Throwing it open he took one step towards his house and then saw the object dropping from the sky in front of him. "MOM GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!" he was sprinting towards the building as fast as he could when the explosion hit. Flames were everywhere and Billy was shot back across his lawn, slamming into his fence.

Dazed, confused, someone shouting in his face. "Jenny we have to go!" Billy shook his head trying to get the spinning to stop and to stop seeing four of the girl in front of him.

"I'm not leaving Billy!" The girl cried out adamantly.

"Mom," the boy mumbled, getting to his feet. "Mom!" he looked towards his house and all he saw was flaming rubble. "Nooo!" He felt a slap across his face and almost dropped to the floor if it wasn't for the woman who grabbed him by the shoulders.

Mrs. Davis, Jennifer's mom held the boy she just slapped and looked him straight in the eyes. "If we don't get out of here right now we're going to get hurt. Your mom wouldn't have wanted that, now come with us," she tugged at his hand and he wiped the tears away with his other hand, following the woman out into the street.

There were people everywhere, panicking and running about as explosions rocked their entire block. Looking towards the town it looked like maybe the police force was trying to stop the slaughter but it was clear that they were fighting a losing battle. Flames covered Wyrville and they started running down the street to get away.

"Stop," Billy and the others froze at Mr. Davis's one word. He was leading them down the street and reached down to his waist, a sense of dread overtaking him. "Take the kids and go," he ordered his wife but she stepped back towards the kids and took a knee.

"By yourself you wouldn't be able to stall long enough," he winced. She looked down at her daughter who was crying, "Shh, shh, it's okay honey." Mrs. Davis turned to Billy and put a hand on his shoulder, "Run as fast as you can, get off the road and run through the forest, it's dangerous but not as much as staying here." She turned back and walked over next to her husband as the rumbling coming towards them got louder. With her back still turned to the kids she said, "Watch after my daughter William."

"Mommy, daddy," Jennifer pleaded but her parents both reached to their waists and pulled red balls out in their hands.

Down the street, Billy finally saw it. The stampede was a pack of Donphans, all of them using rollout and plowing down the street. Behind them were Tauroses, and sitting atop the center Tauros was a man. He wore a dark red uniform with an S printed on it in black. His hair was long and blonde, falling down below his shoulders and he had on a pair of sunglasses. The worst part though, was his wicked smile as the stampede ran over a fleeing couple, he was enjoying this.

"Solars," Mr. Davis hissed.

"Run kids, Run!" Billy grabbed Jenny by the hand and sprinted off into the tall grass, looking back to see the husband wife duo grab each of their two pokeballs each.

"Raticate, Doduo, Go," Mr. Davis released two streams of red light and the Pokemon came out of their balls.

"Ariados, Weedle, come out," Jenny's mom tossed out her only two pets as well. "Sorry guys," she said out loud to them and her pokemon looked up at her confused. "This isn't going to be a fun battle, it's life or death depending on how long we can stall for Jenny to get away."

The four pokemon looked ahead at the stampede coming towards them.

"Ariados, string shot," Mrs. Davis shouted and her giant red spider released a stream of web that coated the street leading up to the rolling enemies who got caught in it and slowed down. They weren't rolling fast enough to continue through it and had to stop their rollout.

That was the last bit of the battle that Billy saw since he then escaped into the tree line with Jenny and was far enough from the town that he could barely hear the explosions anymore.

"Billy," Jenny sniffled. They were both out of breath, leaning up against a large oak tree. "Are my parents dead?"

He thought back about his own mom, then he thought about his dad, and his neighbor's mom and dad. "Maybe," the girl started sobbing and Billy clamped her mouth shut, "Shhh," to prove his point he continued whispering, "we might not be near the Solar guys anymore, but we're in the wild and all I have is my Totodile." He pointed down at the pokeball on his waist.

For the first time since they started running he realized how underprepared he was. All his belongings were inside his house, but as he looked up he saw strings coming over Jenny's shoulders. He spun her around and she was wearing a drawstring bag. "What's in there?"

"I don't know, my parents handed me it as we were running outside." The mention of her parents almost made her break down and cry again but Billy needed to watch and protect her so he had to keep her occupied to keep her mind off of it.

"Well, open it up and let's see what they gave you." She sniffed in and nodded, taking off the bag and opening it. First thing she pulled out was a potion, followed by some power bars for them and a canteen with water in it. Then she pulled out a red device that flipped open and Billy snatched it from her hands. "Whoaaa, he momentarily forgot all the pain he went through in the last thirty minutes as he saw the high-tech pokedex and was now holding it.

The last thing she pulled out was a map and Billy traded her the gadget to look on the map and determine where to go from there. _Rustboro is close, but it's the biggest Solar controlled city now that Slateport's been taken. Mom..._ He shook his head trying to get his thoughts straight. All Billy wanted to do was break down and cry but he wasn't just fending for himself now, now he had someone to look after as well.

_Ok, so Rustboro is out of the question. We could go to Oldale town, but to get there we'd have to go through Petalburg, which is Nimbus owned land,_ he'd heard a lot of terrible atrocities committed by the Nimbuses, but maybe if the Solars were the real bad guys, then going through Petalburg wouldn't wind up being so bad. _The Solars probably spread the rumors anyway,_ "Jenny let's go," he grabbed her pack and put it on his own back to carry the burden.

"Where are we going?" she asked standing behind him and following him south into the woods.

"Oldale town."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"My feet hurt, can we take a break," Jenny asked for the third time in ten minutes. They'd been moving all afternoon and it was getting dark.

The truth was, Billy was afraid of stopping, he knew that the second he sat down and relaxed, he'd start thinking hard about his mom and he didn't want to do that. Unfortunately his feet were getting tired too and he sighed, "Yeah sure, let's take a break."

They sat down on the grass between two trees and Billy was glad that the only thing that tried to attack them was a Caterpie that only got one tiny tackle on his Totodile.

They'd been sitting there for about a minute when Jenny started crying, again. Billy wanted to sob as well, but he was now the responsible one, "Shh, it's going to be alright Jenny."

"We're in the middle of nowhere, with a few granola bars and a half drank canteen of water. Our parents are dead, and there are dangerous monsters all around us!" she got progressively louder as she spoke. "How are we going to be alright?!"

Billy sat there in silence for a few seconds and then whispered, "At least we still have each other." He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her in to his chest. "And I promise, I will protect you," he added as they pulled apart from the hug.

She smiled and nodded, staring into the older boy's eyes. He turned away fast ending the moment and stood up, "Enough rest, we have to keep moving if we want to reach Oldale by morning."

"You mean we're going to keep walking all night?" she gasped already feeling the burn as she stood back up on her feet. "What if we get attacked?"

"Don't worry," he pulled out his pokeball and released his Totodile. "Totodile, walk with us and call out if anything is coming ok?" The small blue creature nodded its head and said its name a few times. Then the group of three started treading through the woods, avoiding any grass that might be hiding smaller pokemon in it, and sneaking past trees with hanging Metapods and Kakunas.

After a few more hours of walking, with the occasional break, they finally saw some light on the other side of the trees. "Look," Jenny let go of her friend's hand and pointed at the clearing. "Come on," she started running forwards.

_What if the rumors about the Nimbus are true?_ "Wait," he shouted at his neighbor who spun to face him. He was going to tell her that they should just sneak around the city which he suspected was Petalburg, and keep on track for Oldale. Before he could say a word though his mouth dropped and he froze in his tracks.

Jenny was looking back at her older friend whose jaw had dropped and tilted her head to the side. He whispered very quietly while cupping his mouth, "Jenny, don't turn around. Move really slow and walk towards me," the girl felt terrified, the expression on the boy's face told it all and even the small blue creature at his feet was taking a few steps back.

Against everything she was feeling, the urge to turn around was too great and she ignored the warnings of her friend. There was a presence directly behind her and it buzzed loud making her stop her hesitation and spin around fast. Wrong move.

"Run!" Billy shouted at Jenny as he ran towards her with his Totodile. She shrieked as the yellow and black bug that was almost as big as she was dove down and swiped with its right drill. "Totodile use leer," Billy commanded and the small blue creature with spikes down its back shot little yellow beams out of his eyes. They connected with the bug's and it stopped attacking Jenny who fell to the ground having been grazed by the attack.

Now the bug targeted them and flew over fast to its attackers. "Use scratch," Billy ordered and his pet jumped up to swipe at the bug but it was faster and swiftly moved out of the way. The boy looked over at the girl who was lying on the floor, unmoving, "Jenny get up." As he turned back he saw Totodile unable to dodge as the Beedrill swooped down and slammed into his spiky pokemon.

"Toto, dile," the creature pulled itself back up to its feet and Billy pulled the pokedex out of his bag and pointed it at his friend. The screen showed things that Billy didn't even know existed and were extremely helpful. Next to his pokemon's name was an almost half empty bar of green with the letters HP next to it. Next to Totodile's name was a number, written out level 6. He pointed the device up at the bug and saw a new reading, it had full green health and said level 11 next to its name.

"Use leer again," Billy shouted as the bug swooped back down. His pokemon glowed yellow eyes and connected with the Beedrill's. The bug type faltered in its next attack and missed the tackle, slamming into the ground instead. "Now use scratch," his Totodile swung out and clawed the yellow bug. He grinned in accomplishment and looked down at the device he had pointed at the monster. _Oh no,_ he miscalculated, even with the leers, the bug was still too strong and only went down a little over a quarter of its health. "Move!" he shouted but Totodile was too slow and the bug swiped it with its right horn.

The bug was angry and swiped again using its fury attack to hit Totodile two more times. His pokemon dropped to the floor and wasn't moving, "Totodile!" Billy shouted but he heard beeping and looked down at the device in his hands. The bar under his friend's name had one small dash of red left and he saw Totodile twitch and start getting back up.

The Beedrill was looking furious and turned towards Billy. He backed up a little, this was the first time he'd ever been in a battle in the wild, he'd only played around will Totodile for fun or to battle a friend in school. Now he was wishing he'd trained his friend a little more and the bug was flying fast at him. He clenched his eyes shut and whispered, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect her."

He waited for the inevitable attack but before the bug struck he heard a shout, "Ursaring, faint attack." His eyes opened and the bug in front of him was frozen as a fist appeared out of nowhere, a huge, furry fist. The punch slammed into the Beedrill and threw it into a nearby tree where it fell to the ground knocked out.

Totodile finally got back over to his master and stood in front of him protectively. Whoever this new attacker was, wouldn't be getting past him. Billy looked down and smiled before hearing a ding sound on the pokedex. He looked down and saw the blue bar on the bottom marked, 'exp,' moving up and stopped past halfway across the screen. Now the level next to Totodile's name read 7 and the health had increased.

"That was a close one kid," Billy shot his eyes up and pocketed the device quickly before the man could notice it. What he saw surprised him and he almost lost his balance and fell to the floor. Sitting with his legs tossed over the monster's shoulders, the man tapped twice on the bear's head and it reached up lowering his master to the ground. "What are you doing out hear in the middle of the night?" The man looked over and saw the little girl lying face down in the dirt and Billy almost slapped himself for forgetting. He sprinted over and kneeled down next to Jenny, shaking her trying to wake her.

"Is she okay? I didn't see much of the battle, all I heard was a shriek and came running." Billy looked back up at the man and actually _looked _this time. The man was shorter than his father, only about five foot five, and had glasses that he pushed up the bridge of his nose with his right pointer finger.

"I don't know, is there a hospital around here?" Billy asked and immediately realized it was the wrong question.

"Wait, where are you from kid? I assumed you were one of the neighborhood kids," the man seemed to tense up and a second ago he was planning on recalling his Ursaring but now he thought it might be a good idea to keep him out for a little longer.

Billy tried to think fast of a lie that could get him out of this one when he remembered what town he was in. "I'm from Wyrville," the man in front of him tensed up more. The nearby town was neutral but everyone knew they were more leaning towards the enemy. Ceasing all thoughts from the man's mind Billy continued, "The Solars just burned it down. They killed our parents."

The man dropped his guard seeing the cold angry eyes of the twelve year old kid in front of him. "I'm sorry," he nodded over at the girl and his giant bear started moving towards her. It was brown with a big white circle in the middle of its stomach and Billy watched carefully as it walked over to him and his friend. "There is a hospital here, I'm going to have Ursaring take your friend to it. You have to come with me though."

"I'm not leaving her," he said firmly and Totodile growled at the man in front of them.

The man thought about arguing but then shook his head, _I__'__ll just bring him to them._ "Alright," Billy became nervous at how easily the man gave up, "at least tell me your names."

"What's yours?" the kid asked defensively.

"I'm Tim. Your turn," he looked expectantly at the boy.

He hesitated for another second and then finally let his guard down, _Tim seems like a good guy,_ "My name's William, she's Jenny." He nodded towards the girl and saw the bear reaching down with his giant left claw. "Hey!" the beast grabbed the girl and lifted her up as Billy tried to pull her back down. Instead, the pokemon used its other paw to grasp the boy and held both children against his warm chest as he walked back over to his master. "What are you doing? I can walk," Billy complained as they made their way through the tree line and onto a dirt path that ran alongside some houses.

"I know you _can,_" the man accentuated as they kept walking but suddenly Billy was feeling really comfortable in the bear's arms. "But you've had a long day, just let Ursaring handle things from here." The boy felt like arguing but his eyes were feeling heavy and he yawned, closing his eyes and passing out in the pokemon's arms.

_Poor kids,_ Tim looked towards some of the doorways around him where people were stepping out and looking onto the road where the two were walking past. His pet was a couple feet taller than he was, almost double his height. Some of the people stepping out of the houses had bandages wrapping their arms or legs, some were using crutches to push their doors open. _Damn Solars, third town this month. I need to tell Steven as soon as possible._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Billy blinked his eyes open and realized his head was sitting in his arms. They were pressed on top of something very soft and he quickly recalled the events of the night before. _Jenny!_ he shot his head up and came face to face with the girl he was thinking about. She giggled as he looked around realizing their surroundings. His arms were resting on top of a bed that his head was also leaning on, sometime during the night he had gotten out of his bed and sat in the chair next to Jenny's leaning his head there and falling back asleep as he watched her.

"You're okay," he reached out and hugged her. _If she__'__d been hurt bad because my pokemon couldn__'__t help her in time I don__'__t know what I would__'__ve__…_ she hugged him back and nodded her head.

"Thanks for looking out for me big bro," he cocked his head to the side confused at her comment. She'd never referred to him as that before but she didn't seem to notice and just laid back down.

Feeling light around the waist, Billy shot his hand down and found that his pokeball was missing. "Totodile!" he gasped jumping up and looking around the room for it.

He searched everywhere before Jenny sat up and threw her pillow at him. "That nice man with the glasses came in and took your Totodile while you were sleeping."

"What?!" the boy shouted at her.

"Don't worry," he heard the voice right behind him and looked at the door that had just opened up. The man from the night before tossed him a red and white ball that he bobbled and caught before holding it tight. "Little guy was pretty beat up from your fight, I brought him downstairs to the pokemon center."

"Are we in Oldale?" Jenny asked oblivious to the knowledge that William already had.

"No Mrs. Davis," the man became grim, "Oldale was sacked two weeks ago, I would've thought you two had known about that already."

"The Solars?" Billy asked and Tim nodded slowly. _I__'__m right, they have been giving us propaganda, feeding us wrong information. Towns are being burned and they__'__re playing it off like nothing__'__s happening._ "But why?" Something else was also pestering him but he didn't know what it was until the man started speaking again and Billy backed up a few feet.

"They're losing the war, at least we believe they are. Every loss to them is just another excuse to resort to more drastic measures." Billy was staring at the man trying to keep his calm. "They lost Mauville first, and then the Nimbus were able to invade from the north and south simultaneously and Slateport fell." Tim noticed the fear in the boy's eyes and tilted his head, "What is it?" he tried stepping closer but Billy backed up again.

"How do your know our last names?" he asked. First the man called Jenny Mrs. Davis, then he called him by his last name.

"Ahh, that," he laughed. "After you two came in last night, a couple other stragglers from your town managed to make their way here. There were only about four in all but we wanted to check if your story was true so we had one of them identify you. She said her name was Ms. Hue," the little girl smiled.

"That's my teacher," she explained to Billy and then looked at the man in front of her, "is she alright?"

"A few scrapes and bruises, but nothing compared to the mental pain." The two kids looked confusedly at him, "her Bellossom stayed behind to fight and gave her and the other three students with her enough time to escape." The children looked down, remembering the Davis's similar sacrifice and Tim realized he must've said too much.

Returning to a happy tone he said, "Come follow me, we'll get you kids some breakfast and then our police chief needs to have a few words with you." The kids nodded and got up, following the man out of the room and into the hallway. They were definitely in a hospital, but as they got downstairs they realized it doubled as a pokemon center. One trainer ran inside in a hurry and up to the counter, handing the Nurse Joy behind it three pokeballs.

"Let's go," Tim nudged the kids who were watching in awe as the nurse put the balls into a machine. They looked away reluctantly and allowed the man to treat them to breakfast. As they sat at one of the tables eating, they heard a voice from behind them. "That's him, you kids be good and truthful now," Tim lectured and got up, allowing the policeman, or policewoman, as Billy was quite surprised about to sit across from them. She was beautiful and the boy tried to not be nervous as she looked at them seriously.

Jenny kept eating her pancakes as Billy and the officer made eye contact. "Hello there, I'm Officer Jenny."

"Whoa that's my name!" The nine year old girl mumbled through her food.

"Hi, I'm William," the boy said.

"Well Billy," she started and his attempt to act professional went away as she gave him the same nickname every adult did, "can you tell me what happened? The others all ran out of a building that was already on fire and tried sprinting straight for the tree line, only Ms. Hue was able to give the smallest bit of information. I was wondering if you had some more insight on the matter."

In his most mature tone, Billy tried to recall all the different pokemon he saw during the attack on his home the day before. He skipped over the part where he ran towards his house shouting for his mom, and he also jumped over the part where Jenny's parents stayed behind. He did mention the pokemon they were dropping as bombs and the stampede of creatures all led by the blonde man in sunglasses.

Jenny reached into her satchel and pulled out a manila folder, "Was this the man?" Billy took one look and nodded. His younger neighbor grabbed the picture and glared at the man responsible for her parents' deaths. The officer looked at the girl and thought back on what Tim told her about the kids' parents. "Thank you both very much," she collected her things and stood back up. Before she left she glanced back and bent her head in respect, "I'm sorry about your folks." With that she was gone and Tim returned from the table he was sitting at sipping a coffee.

"You guys alright?" the man asked and the kids nodded, both lost in their own trains of thought.

_I can__'__t let this ever happen again._

_He has to pay._

"Well," he looked around and the kids had finished their breakfasts or had stopped eating and weren't going to regain their lost appetites. "Let's head back to my house." They looked at him oddly, "This is a hospital, and you kids can't be taking up a room you don't need so I offered to take you in for as long as you need to stay. My wife was happy to hear it and already set up the guest room for you guys."

Jenny smiled at the man and Billy was starting to feel more open around him. So far all Tim had done was save their lives and look out for them. "I don't know," he was still partially hesitant. "We were planning on heading straight to Oldale, but if the whole town is burnt down," he pulled out the map from the bag still on his back. He searched around Oldale and pointed at the next closest town, "We're going to go for Littleroot, I don't think they've sided with either side and I need to get Jenny somewhere safe and away from the war."

Tim looked angry, "Littleroot?" he scoffed. "That town's been closed off to anyone and everyone since right after the start of the war."

"What why?" Jenny asked intrigued.

"The new Champ of the Elite Four is from Littleroot, he won't get involved with the war and stated that if anyone attacks his home, he would personally go around and end the entire war on his own." The man looked pissed off and Billy was going to ask why but he kept ranting on his own. "The great Professor Birch lives in Littleroot and if he were to join us, we might be able to end the war quicker creating less bloodshed." The man suddenly realized who he was talking to and started laughing heartily, "Anyways, let's get back to my house, I'm sure you kids will love my wife. Sharon is the best cook in town, even has her own restaurant.

"Wait," Billy said as they exited the doors of the hospital. Before they left he needed to do something first. He turned to Tim and with looked the man in the eyes, "Can I borrow fifty bucks?" The man seemed surprised but saw over the top of Billy's head the pokemart right behind him.

_Hmm, couldn__'__t hurt,_ "Sure kid, but spend it wisely."

"Can I have fifty too?" Jenny asked giving the man puppy dog eyes.

"Haha, I'd be a broke man if I gave every cute kid that asks me for money some, just wait outside with me," he handed Billy the money and the kid ran inside the store.

_If I__'__m going to become strong enough to protect Jenny, then I__'__m going to need more than just one pokemon._ He walked up to the counter and bought five pokeballs, costing him $20. He still had thirty dollars left and looked around the shelf, _I wish I had payed more attention when Dad talked about this stuff. Dad... _"Can I have one of each of those?" the store clerk smiled at the smart decision by the kid and handed him one of each of the six medicines on the shelf, each was five dollars.

"Thank you," he walked back outside and the three of them started walking down the street.

"I don't want to ask, but do you have any change for me," Billy kept smiling and shook his head. _These kids are going to be the death of me,_ the man grinned and pointed at one of the bland looking houses they were about to reach. "Head on inside," the two kids walked up to the door and reached for the knob but the door was pulled back a second before they could open it themselves.

"Ahh, you're here already. Come in come in, there's water boiling and your rooms are all set up. Do you like pasta, I'm making lunch and if you don't like pasta I can always dump the water now and start cooking up some burgers," the short woman was as tall as Billy and had long curly black hair. Her four foot eleven stature made her look as un-intimidating as she sounded.

"No, pasta is fine, really," Jenny assured as she smiled and walked inside.

"Oh fantastic, let me show you to your room, it used to be my son Fredrick's but he went and joined the Nimbus front lines, you know how children are these days, can't wait to get in on the action. She opened the door and pointed at the separate twin beds, one half of the room was painted pink and the other painted navy blue.

Jenny went and jumped on the bed covered in stuffed pokemon and almost shrieked in delight. Sharon headed back for the kitchen to continue lunch and Billy turned to Tim who was behind him, "You really didn't have to buy all those toys just for Jenny."

The man sighed and a frown appeared on his face. Speaking quietly so the girl playing with the plush toys wouldn't hear, Tim spoke, "They belonged to my daughter. Her name was Sarah," Billy heard the word 'was' and felt awkward hearing the man talk about it, "she was killed right at the start of the war. She was eight years old. That's the whole reason Freddie went to the front lines."

"I'm sorry," Billy gave his condolences and the man nodded his appreciation. "How long do you think we have before lunch?" The man shrugged his shoulders and Billy started walking back towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" Tim asked.

The twelve year old boy looked back inside and saw Jenny had poked her head out from the doorway as well. "To train," he walked out the front door and closed it behind him, heading straight for the forest ahead of him.

An hour and a half later, the boy showed up at the house covered in dirt and scratches. He ate lunch incredibly fast with the family at the table, but as soon as he finished he thanked them and ran back out the door. After five hours without hearing from the kid, Jenny finally convinced Tim to go look for him.

The man didn't have to go far as he saw Billy heading from the hospital straight for the tree line. He decided to check in with Nurse Joy and went inside the hospital's front doors. "Back again so soon?" the nurse looked up and saw it wasn't the boy this time, "Oh Tim, thought you were that little boy again. He's been running in and out of here every hour or so the whole day. What's he been doing out there?"

"That's exactly what I want to know," Tim left the center and headed for the trees that Billy went into. He walked through and moved closer to the sounds of fighting further in the trees, "Billy," he whispered as he poked his head out from behind an oak. What he saw shocked and amazed him.

"Totodile, use water gun," the small blue pokemon jumped up and shot a stream of water at the green object hanging from the tree. "Now use scratch," the Metapod hardened and shone silver as Totodile attacked it again, the attack was too strong for the bug pokemon's defense however and it fell off the tree unconscious.

The boy looked down at a device in his hands and Tim looked in closer, "Yes," the boy pumped his fist as his Totodile increased another level to 14. "Great job, come back," he called back in his pokemon and was reaching for one of the other balls at his waist when he heard a voice call out from the trees.

"I wouldn't catch that one if I were you," Billy jumped in fright and pulled the ball off his waist.

Seeing it was Tim he relaxed and tossed the ball up in the air, "I wasn't planning on catching it." The man didn't understand why the boy was throwing a pokeball when a light appeared from the ball and a form started appearing in front of him. "I was going to start training one of my other pokemon."

"Nido," the Nidoran growled in a high voice at the man before it.

Tim was impressed again, _'__...one of my other pokemon,__'_ "How many have you caught?"

"Only one more," Billy assured as he started walking. The purple Nidoran, which Tim knew to be a boy, followed behind the kid past another tree when he stopped. "Alright, Nidoran use Focus Energy," energy surrounded the spiky rodent and Tim looked up to see a Cascoon shoot a string of web down at Billy's pokemon.

It covered the pet and the Cascoon moved closer, "Use peck Nidoran." His pokemon was slowed and before it could attack, a spike from the gray bug's body shot out and glowed purple as it hit Nidoran. Then Billy's friend dove forward and pecked the enemy. Because of the focus energy, the hit was critical and Cascoon went from full health to zero in a second.

"Awesome," Tim commented looking down as Billy looked at the device he had pocketed. "Where'd you get that?"

"Jenny's parents put it in a bag and gave it to her as they were escaping from the town." Billy stopped and frowned looking at the blue bar on the bottom, "so close." The man looked down and saw the bar almost finished covering the screen. The kid explained his disappointment, "At level 12 he gets double kick and I thought one more battle would level him." The frown was replaced with a determined smirk, "Guess I need to go another round."

Nidoran took a step and glowed purple, wincing as it did. "Looks like you still need more training, your pokemon is poisoned." Billy looked down and opened his mouth in surprise. "Let's get it back to the pokemon center before it passes out.

It glowed purple again and Billy smiled, "Or I could do this," he pulled out an antidote from his bag and injected it into his pokemon which instantly smiled and ran a circle around him. "Good boy, down, come on," Tim laughed at the boy's antics with his pet.

"It really seems to like you," then he realized where the kid got the antidote and shouted, "Hey!" Billy looked up surprised, "That was my money you just wasted wasn't it?"

The boy sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "But Nidoran was hurting..."

"That's why I said to bring him to the pokemon center, there's no need to waste money. Especially _my_ money," Billy nodded solemnly. Tim looked around and then sighed, "Alright, everyone is getting worried about you. Fight one more battle and then come back to the house once Nidoran has learned double kick."

"Thank you," Billy jumped up and started running off with Nidoran right next to him. Tim smiled and headed back to his house, _That kid is growing on me. Reminds me of... Freddie. _His smile faded and he walked out of the tree line heading for his house.

"Tim," the man froze at the voice he recognized far too well.

Without turning to face the man behind him, Tim replied, "Maxie." He turned slowly to face the man in the red coat. "What are you doing here? Where's Steven?"

"He had important matters to take of back at HQ. Lilycove is a big city, spies are being found all over the place. Fear is setting in and he needed to calm down the citizens. I'm not here to talk about Steven, and you know that." Maxie looked towards the tree line where a boy had just emerged from and was walking carefully towards them. "Is that the boy?"

Tim turned and cursed under his breath, "Yeah that's him. William come here." _'__William?__' __Who is that man, and why is Tim scared of him?_ Billy walked closer and looked up at the scary man. His hair was red and pulled back behind his head, and he had on a black leather jacket with the red letter 'N' stitched into the left part of the chest.

"I hear that you saw Volt," the ginger man stated less of a question than a statement but was still expecting an answer.

_Volt?_ "You mean the blonde man riding the Tauros?"

Maxie nodded, "That blondie's name is Volt. He's the son of one of Solar's top generals. The main reason it took us so long to take Mauville, the sole being responsible for hundreds of deaths, the old gym leader in Mauville City, Wattson. The only reason we were finally able to take the city was because Wattson was called off for urgent business in the west. Now we know what he's been doing out here." Maxie motioned with his head for Tim to follow him.

The man pushed his glasses up with his index finger and then looked down at Billy, "Go home, tell Sharon who I'm with and she'll understand." The man turned around as the boy nodded and started off the other direction.

He didn't know what it was about Maxie, but the guy gave him the chills.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Over the next week, Billy continued to train while still living at Tim's house. Petalburg City was a really nice place and they started to get to know some of the neighbors whom turned out to also be refugees. There were people from Oldale and Greenlawn, the other two towns destroyed by Solar forces in the past month.

Every day they saw less and less of Tim, who was constantly being called away by a Nimbus soldier to go to some meeting at the town hall. The town hall was really the old Petalburg Gym, but the sign had been torn down and a new sign was put up.

After asking around, Billy found out that the leader Norman had gone missing a few years back. Some people thought he was dead but when he asked Sharon about it she smiled. "Norman," she looked up at the ceiling, "he really was a great man."

"So he is dead?" the boy asked as he and Jenny ate their lunch. Tim was again absent from the meal but Sharon shook her head.

"No," she started whispering, "don't tell my husband I'm telling you this," the kids nodded fast, "but Norman is very much alive. He is back home, in Littleroot," Billy gasped.

"But isn't Littleroot closed off to everyone?" Jenny asked. Over the past couple of days she had began training as well, Billy helped her catch a Weedle in the woods and then she was able to start training without his help.

The woman put one of her curls behind her ear and whispered quieter, "It is," the kids leaned in closer, "but not if you're the father of the Champ who closed the town in the first place."

They gasped, "Norman's the Champ's dad?" Jenny asked loudly.

Billy clapped his hand over the girl's mouth and the woman put a finger up to her mouth making a 'shh' sound. The boy released his hand and thought, _Littleroot sounds like it has a lot of powerful people in it: Norman, Professor Birch, the Champion of the Elite Four._

The day after this conversation, Billy walked by the old gym and was staring at it when the doors opened and Tim walked outside. He saw Billy watching and walked fast up to the young man, "What are you doing out here?" Tim said in a hushed voice, shoving the boy and leading him away.

Confused, Billy responded, "I was just looking at the old gym. Is there something wrong with that?" Tim looked back and saw Maxie walk out of the building followed by two men in trench coats. One of them had short blonde hair and a crooked smile, while the other had no hair at all and just glared back at the man with the glasses.

"Nevermind that, come," he looked down into the boy's eyes. "Let's see how you're doing with your training."

"You mean it?" Billy asked excitedly. He looked over where Tim was staring a minute before and the bald guy made eye contact with him, freaking him out. He turned back to the man who let him in and smiled again, remembering the question.

"Yeah, let's battle," Tim responded and looked back but the men weren't there anymore. He gulped and then put a smile on and led Billy towards the woods.

As they were walking into the forest, Billy wouldn't stop talking. "…and because everything around here is around the same level, my pokemon haven't really been leveling up a lot anymore. There aren't many that I want to catch either, I only have my Totodile and two others in my party."

"There." The twelve year old followed where Tim was pointing and ran through the remaining trees into a clearing. It was as if someone cut down all the trees in the vicinity making a huge rectangular clearing to have battles in. "This is a training ground, used by the soldiers on leave from duty so they can continue to hone their skills."

"Have you ever battled Fredrick?" Billy asked moving to one side of the field and allowing Tim to move to the other side.

"Oh yes," the man smiled sincerely and grinned towards the kid, "hundreds of times, yet, he never beat me once." William West gulped at the sound of that but didn't have time to reconsider his challenge.

"Nidorino, I choose you," Billy grabbed the furthest right pokeball and chucked it onto the field, releasing a purple spiked monster with a large horn on its forehead.

_He__'__s already managed to evolve it, in such a short time,_ "If that's the case then I pick Girafarig." Billy pulled out his pokedex and it gave him the stats of the yellow four legged creature before him.

_Level 19!_ _He__'__s not far above me, alright, here goes,_ "Nidorino use double kick."

"Girafarig, astonish," the psychic and normal type monsters charged at each other and before Billy's could attack it was hit by the dark astonish. He waited for his Nidorino to respond to the attack and fight back but his pokemon flinched and Girafarig bounced back.

"Try it again Nidorino," he shouted, "double kick."

"Astonish again," the two pokemon met but this time, after getting hit by Girafarig's attack, Nidorino still managed to kick the taller pokemon twice, damaging it more than it hurt him with both of its previous attacks. Billy's was still above half health while with that one double kick, Tim knew his Girafarig was already in the yellow. _One more hit like that and she__'__ll be down for the count. _

"Girafarig, use stomp," Tim commanded.

"Dodge and use double kick again," Billy shouted out and Nidorino jumped to the right at the same time as Girafarig's foot came down. It spun and tried to kick but missed its mark and the two pokemon started circling each other.

"Confusion," Tim shouted out and the pokemon started staring into Billy's pokemon's soul.

"Use poison sting," Nidorino shook its head and shot a spike filled with poison at the Girafarig. He hoped it would be enough to defeat it, but he fell just short and Tim's creature was only down in the red. "Use it again," he shouted but he heard red blinking and it was coming from Girafarig but also from Nidorino. His pokemon wobbled around where it was standing before attacking itself and falling over knocked out.

"Looks like Nidorino was too confused to know who its enemy was," Tim chuckled and then his Girafarig fell to its knees. It glowed dark purple for a second and then collapsed on the ground, also out cold. "Impressive, but let's see how you like this. Porygon, go!" he grabbed another ball from his belt and tossed it in the air, releasing a beam of red light that formed a weird geometric shape with eyes on the field.

"Come back Nidorino," Billy recalled his pokemon and whispered into the ball, "you did great. Thank you." He put it back on his belt and grabbed another ball, "Totodile, you're next," he held out the ball and a red light emerged in the field.

Tim started laughing and Billy looked down to see what was so funny. In front of him, a small bird started hopping around and his cheeks flushed red. "I meant Pidgey, I meant to say Pidgey." _I__'__ll show him,_ "Use peck," the bird flew forwards fast and pecked the weird crystal form on the field. Tim just smiled and Billy looked down at his red device to see that the attack did very little against the Porygon. _Level 24!_ he looked at his own Pidgey only level 16 and felt overwhelmed by the distance between them.

"Are you giving up already?" Tim grinned and pushed up his glasses.

"Course not," a new determined look appeared on his face. "Alright Pidgey, use sand-attack," the bird swooped down and flew past the Porygon fast, shooting fast moving sand particles into its face so it scrunched its eyes.

"Porygon use Psybeam," a pink light beam of circles flew up into the sky but missed the fast moving bird.

"Pidgey, use sand-attack again," the bird flew down and swept more dirt and dust into his opponent's eyes. _Kid__'__s a natural, he doesn__'__t go straight in with the brute force attacks. He__'__s weakening Porygon, but it won__'__t be enough, there__'__s too much of a difference in our pokemon__'__s strength._

Tim got serious and shouted to his pokemon, "Use agility," the beast started vibrating as it sped up its movements.

"Sand-attack, one more time," Billy called out and his bird started flying back down. It flew right over the Porygon but before the sand could fly in its eyes, it moved out of the way.

Pidgey was flying back up in the air when they heard Tim shout, "Now use Psybeam," the pink attack flew up and the bird didn't have the time to move, but it missed. The beam flew several yards off course and Tim looked over to see Porygon still couldn't see very well because of the previous sand-attacks.

"Alright Pidgey, we have him now, use gust." The bird flapped its wings and a large current of air came down and hit the Porygon. It dug its crystal feet into the ground and was pushed back dragging a line in the dirt.

"Porygon use Psybeam," the attack missed again and Billy was beginning to think he had the match in the bag.

"Gust again," Pidgey attacked and it pushed Porygon back again, this time much further than previously. Billy looked down and the opponent was far down in the yellow, his health moving closer to nothing. _I__'__ve got this._

Tim laughed as he saw Billy's face light up, "Don't think so. Recover!" the Porygon glowed and Billy watched in horror as the health bar on the bottom moved back past the halfway point and into the green.

"Use quick attack Pidgey," the bird slammed into Porygon at a fast speed but it was all over.

"Psybeam," the pink light collided with the bird in front of Porygon and it fell out of the air.

_One hit!_ He looked down and the device confirmed it as Pidgey's health went from full to nothing in an instant. "Come back," he held out the pokeball and his bird turned red and flew back into it. "Alright Totodile," he pulled out his last and final pokeball, "finish that Porygon."

As soon as the small blue creature appeared, "Psybeam," Totodile was hit by the attack and Billy heard red blinking on his pokedex.

"Water gun Totodile," the blue pokemon shot out a stream of water, also knocking the opponent's pokemon down into the red.

_ I could recover, but one more hit and the Totodile is done, no need,_ "Porygon use Psybeam again," the pink light zoomed out and went right over the top of the water pokemon's head. _Crap, the sand-attacks._

"Water gun," the blue monster shot a stream of water out and it slammed into the creature before him. Porygon dropped on its side with swirls around its eyes. Billy looked down to his pokedex to see how much experience he got and watched the bar shoot up and finish, then it moved all the way up and dinged again as Totodile gained a second level. It was now lvl 19 and Billy fist pumped.

"Hmm, that was a nice job," Tim grabbed his second to last pokeball, "but I'm afraid your days are numbered." He held out the ball and a starfish shaped pokemon with a red jewel in the center appeared. "Staryu, your turn."

The two pokemon looked at each other and almost started attacking when Billy shouted, "Wait." Tim was about to call out a move but looked forwards to see what was so important. "Look," Billy pointed excitedly at his pokemon which was starting to glow bright.

_In the middle of a battle?_ Tim had never seen one evolve while fighting before. In the center of the battlefield, the mainly blue, under two foot tall creature shined bright for a few seconds and morphed inside the light. It grew another foot taller and as the light vanished, the two boys could see the pokemon's chest and most of its body was now speckled yellow and the bottom half of the jaw was as well. There were two teeth sticking out up the upper lip and resting there, Croconaw licked his lips. Billy saw the new name of his pokemon appear on the pokedex and jumped up in the air.

Croconaw turned to the Staryu and glared at it, "Leer," the eyes glowed yellow and connected with the jewel on Staryu's center which glowed as well.

The pokemon jumped back next to his master and Billy noticed the creature was panting. It was just out of the red, and there was no blinking, but as he looked his hopes fell as he saw the level of his opponent's Staryu. "Water gun," the boy heard the man shout and called out the same thing in response. Both streams of water met in the air and Croconaw's held firm for three seconds, then his water was overtaken by the amount Staryu was shooting and it slammed into him, knocking him across the battlefield where he passed out.

Billy ran over and bent down to his new evolved pokemon. "It's alright," he sighed and called back his friend. _That was only his third anyway, he still had that Ursaring in reserves._ The boy looked over at the man walking towards him, "Good job."

"That's what I should be telling you," Tim replied honestly. The boy looked up skeptically, "No, I'm serious. Despite the level difference, you managed to defeat two of my pokemon. That's the true sign of a great trainer."

"But I lost," the kid said putting his pokeball back on his belt.

"Losing isn't everything Billy," he grabbed the kid by the shoulder, "you're progressing fast and your team is coming together nicely. In such a short time you've managed to become a decent trainer, I wouldn't be surprised if you went far kid."

He smiled at the man's encouraging words, then Tim clapped his hands together. "Alrighty then, let's get ourselves to the pokemon center and then back home. I'm sure Sharon will have a wonderful meal prepared already."

They started walking off and Tim slung an arm over Billy's shoulder, making the kid feel oddly safe. Maybe it was just witnessing that the other man was stronger and had pokemon capable of protecting him, but he felt safer and allowed the man to rest his arm there. _Don__'__t worry mom, I haven__'__t forgotten,_ his face hardened for a second and he glared ahead, _I will get revenge for you._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Sharon woke up and turned on her side, seeing for the fifth day straight that her husband was gone before she even awoke. Sighing, she got out of bed and put on her robe.

_Wonder if Billy's out training again this morning_, she popped her head into the children's room but both kids were there. Seeing them both got her motivated and she went into the kitchen, ready to prepare a feast for them. _I forgot how nice it was having a full house,_ she looked out the window, the sky tinted just a little red as the sun began to rise.

The woman with dark black curls looked down at the eggs in front of her along with the cup of milk. Right before she picked up the cup, she saw the liquid vibrate. Her hand stopped above it and she leaned closer. The water was still again, but then it shook, ripples shot across the surface.

She looked out the window as this time she didn't need to see the cup to feel the ground shake. There wasn't anything she could see just by staring through the window, but when she leaned closer a blast of ice flew straight at the kitchen window, freezing the entire thing over.

Before Sharon could even stand after falling in fright from the ice beam, her jaw dropped as a huge silver foot came down outside her window shattering the ice and glass at the same time. "Ahhhh!"

Billy shot out of bed and looked around the room. The lights were still off but the lamp next to his bed fell to the floor. He reached down to grab it but as he did he heard Sharon scream and ran for the door. _What the Hell is going on?_ he sprinted into the kitchen and saw Sharon pushing herself backwards on the floor with her hands. He ran to her and grabbed her under the shoulder, helping the woman to her feet, "What's going on?" he asked looking out the broken hole where the window once was.

"Don't," she whispered, trying to grab his hand but the boy was already at the window.

He poked his head out and turned to the right, _No, not again._ A giant metal pokemon was walking down the street outside the window. "Jenny!" he shouted spinning back into the house and running for his room. The girl was already dressed and in the doorway looking at the older boy with confused, scared eyes.

"What's happening?" she asked terrified.

"You need to stay here with Sharon," he grabbed his gear and strapped it on fast. He went to the girl and bent down so he was eye level with her, "How trained is your Weedle?"

"It's not a Weedle anymore," she replied with a smirk on her face. "I've already evolved it into a Kakuna, and then a Beedrill." Billy was actually surprised and smiled at the girl.

"Alright then you have an important job," he looked back into the kitchen where Sharon was boarding up the broken window, "protect Sharon." Jennifer looked over at the woman who had let them stay in her home as if they were her own kids. She turned back to her neighbor and nodded.

The boy ran for the front door and threw it open, ignoring the shouts from the woman behind him. Jenny stood between Sharon and Billy, not letting the woman make it to the front door. He closed it behind him and sprinted towards the iron monster walking on all fours towards the center of town. He could see fires raging all around the city, although it was nowhere near as bad as the attack on Wyrville.

_There are a lot more trainers here, maybe Tim and the others are keeping it under control around the city._ He shook his head and focused on the task at hand. "Spheal aurora beam!" Billy spun his head and ducked just in time as a bright blue light flew over the top of his head.

_Too close,_ he looked to where the shout came from and followed it up to the top of the iron monster. The twelve year old pulled out his pokedex and pointed it at the monster while he stared at the man on top of it. He was standing on its back, wearing all red with a black 'S' in the front right of the chest. "Solars!" he shouted with fury, rage filling his eyes.

He reached down and heard the man scream again as he grabbed two pokeballs. "Spheal use ice ball," Billy didn't even look since he remembered which direction the beam came from before. The boy dove forwards and instantly went into a barrel-roll. As he was spinning on the ground he saw a huge chunk of ice fly over his head and crash into the house next door to the one he'd been staying in.

As he got to his feet he threw the two pokeballs in his hands up in the air. The beings appeared and he grinned, "Pidgeotto, Nidorino, I choose you," he looked over as the Lairon turned around to face its attackers. For the first time he saw the Spheal that was lying on its stomach on the steel monsters left side.

Looking down at his pokedex he saw there was quite a discrepancy in their levels. While his Pidgeotto was level twenty one and Nidorino was level twenty five, the masked figure in the blood red suit's Spheal was level twenty seven which wasn't too far off, but the Lairon was level thirty two. _No time to think about it,_ "Pidgeotto, use whirlwind," the bird pokemon blew up dust and dirt into the air, clouding the area and making the figure standing on top of his pokemon start coughing.

"Nice, now Nidorino use double kick on Spheal," the purple pokemon ran forwards fast through the cloud of dust to where it remembered the small light blue pokemon was lying. He jumped up and kicked the ice pokemon twice before flipping back and landing in front of his master. _Did I get him?_

The dust began to clear but before it could, a voice shouted, "Take down." Lairon's body moved faster than Billy thought it could and it rammed into his Nidorino. The small purple beast flew back and slammed into a building, cracking the siding and making parts of it fall on top of his pokemon.

"Nidorino!" Billy shouted back at the building. The rubble shook and then fell to the side, his pokemon pushing its way back out and shaking itself off. "Great," he turned back and saw a blue light fly up in the sky and narrowly miss his Pidgeotto. "Use quick attack against Spheal," he called up to it. _Taking out one will make it easier to focus all my energy on the second,_ he watched his bird pokemon fly down and nail the small blue pokemon with a hit before flying back up in the air. "Now follow up with poison sting Nidorino!"

"Lairon, use iron tail," the beast spun around and swiped its tail. The attack was slow and Pidgeotto easily flew out of the way. Billy cast a glance at his pokedex and saw that Spheal was low in the red, however it didn't get poisoned from Nidorino's previous attack.

"Pidgeotto one more time, quick attack on Spheal," the bird swooped down fast and slammed into the blue creature, making it roll backwards into someone's front yard fence, breaking it into a bunch of little pieces.

_Yes!_ "Metal claw," Billy turned as the Lairon reared up on its hind legs. Pidgeotto was still flying back up into the air from its attack and didn't expect the monster that was on the ground to suddenly reach up. Both of the monster's claws cut into the bird and sent it plummeting to the ground.

Billy swore he could see blood falling out of the sky with his Pidgeotto and started running over to where it was dropping. _I__'__m not going to make it,_ just as he thought he was going to watch the bird hit the ground and crumple, Nidorino jumped up and caught Pidgeotto by its neck with his teeth. He was gentle and lowered the bird to the ground slowly.

Even the man who had just held on tight as his steel pokemon reared up was astonished, he'd never seen a pokemon save another like Nidorino just did. The boy nodded at his already injured friend who seemed to nod back and then glared at the metal beast before them. "Come back Pidgeotto," he pulled the bird back into its pokeball and pulled off his last one at the same time. "Croconaw, help me finish this." The level twenty three, blue and yellow pokemon started to emerge from its ball and growled at the enemy through bared teeth.

A red light appeared from the pokeball and the man in red glared angrily through his mask at the child before him. He'd been told there wasn't anyone who was going to fight him back on this side of town, at least not effectively. Now he had to rely on his Lairon so he jumped up in the air and flipped off his monster. Landing next to it he called out, "Iron defense followed by take down!"

The pokemon shone silver and then charged forwards and dove but the two smaller pokemon ran towards it and slid underneath right as the metal pokemon jumped. They went right underneath its belly and as they did, Billy shouted, "Horn attack! Bite!"

Being right under the soft spot of Lairon's stomach, the two pokemon that slammed their faces into the monster above them inflicted a lot of pain. Both the horn attack and the bite were critical hits. Instead of landing the dive, Lairon was stunned by the pain it felt and crashed, dragging a trench through the street straight towards Billy. The boy sprinted to the left and dove into someone's front lawn just as the pokemon skidded past him.

He got up slowly and shook some dust off his clothes when he realized he was laying on top of something. Looking down, the boy saw the small ice creature from before, unconscious and laying under a broken fence post. _Asshole didn__'__t even pull you back into your pokeball, you deserve better than this._

Turning around he saw his pokemon were standing behind the Lairon, watching it stand up and holding their ground. Instead of looking worried about the two big hits on his pet, the Solar fighter almost seemed happy and pointed a hand at the Lairon, "Iron tail on the weakened one, finish it for good," the steel monster in front of him almost looked sad as its tail swung all the way to one side and started coming back.

"Move Nidorino! Get out of the way!" he watched in horror as his purple pokemon was about to get destroyed by the massive silver tail heading for it. His fear turned to relief, which quickly turned into confusion. The other man was feeling similarly as was his Lairon and Nidorino.

At the last second, right before the tail hit the spiky purple monster, Croconaw jumped in front of the tail and took the attack for his friend. _Just like Nidorino catching Pidgeotto before, they__'__re like a real team._ He looked to where Croconaw was sent flying and grimaced as he saw the hole in the building across the street from Tim and Sharon's. In it lived an elderly couple who had escaped from Oldale, each losing a leg during the attack. He hoped they were alright but was more concerned about his friend.

"Croconaw," he called out and didn't hear a response.

The man cackled and shouted at the little boy in front of him, "That little guy isn't getting up from that. It's all over," his Lairon still had a bit more health than the boy's Nidorino and the smaller pokemon didn't have a chance against the much higher leveled steel one.

Billy looked over at his Nidorino and saw it was struggling to stay on all fours, occasionally dropping to one knee but getting back up fast to avoid looking weak. Suddenly he heard a deep growl and turned his head slightly to the left, the enemy he was facing did the same.

"That's impossible," he muttered taking a step back behind his pokemon. The boy's Croconaw was stepping out of the darkness from inside the house, eyes glowing yellow. It stepped through the hole it was smashed through before and growled again, glaring at the Lairon which seemed to sweat before him.

"Croconaw, use water gun," Billy shouted at the top of his lungs and his pokemon gladly complied. A jet stream of water exploded from Croconaw's mouth and slammed into Lairon's face full force. The boy didn't need to look at his red device to know that the silver pokemon was out. It crashed backwards into the shouting enemy and slammed into him, throwing him into the wall of Tim's house which started to crumble on him.

Billy ran over and his pokemon followed, they stood next to him as he reached down and threw some bricks and rubble to the side until he reached the masked man's head. He pulled off some more but not enough to let the man free, it was time for answers. "Why are you here?!" Billy shook the man by the shoulders making sure he was awake in the mask.

The man looked up at the boy and then to his left and right where there were angry-looking pokemon baring their teeth at him. "I'm not telling you anything kid."

Billy wouldn't let up, he didn't even notice Sharon and Jenny staring at him through the newly formed hole in the wall. "I asked you why the Solars are attacking this city. Why they attacked Wyrville? What do the Solars gain from killing our parents!?" he grabbed the man by the mask and ripped it across his face, tearing it and throwing it to the side.

He looked at the man's face for the first time and froze. Billy dropped down and fell on his butt, looking at his hands and then back up at the man who had a nasty smirk on his face. _It can__'__t be,_ "Billy what's wrong?" Jenny asked running towards him. The boy looked as if he'd just seen a ghost.

"Billy are you alright?" Sharon asked also moving towards the boy. He heard her voice and snapped back to reality, scrambling backwards and getting to his feet in a fighting stance.

"Stay back," his sudden hostility towards the woman confused both her and the girl who looked back at the lady and frowned.

"Billy what…" Jenny started.

"Jenny get away from her," he shouted and looked back down at the bald man with only his head and shoulders out of the rubble. He was the same man that he saw leaving the old gym with Maxie and Tim a few days before. "He's not a Solar," from where he was standing Billy could see Sharon's face turn to realization.

The girl turned to Sharon who was shaking her head at the girl slowly, "It's not what you think." As Sharon took a step forwards, Jenny stepped back. The woman froze but Jenny took another step and then turned, running over to her friend.

Billy grabbed her by the hand and took one last look at Sharon, he was actually considering her like a member of his family, she disappointed him. Turning away, he took Jenny and started running down the street. People were in their doorways cheering for him and applauding having just watched his fight from inside their homes. _They__'__re all liars, Nimbus disguised as Solars, real Solars burning down towns. _

"Where are we going? What's happening?" Jenny asked, scared and confused.

"We need to escape the city," he was heading for the pokemon center, there was no way they were getting out of there before his friends were healed and ready for a journey. "We can't trust anyone, Nimbus, Solar, no one."

"Even Tim?" Billy thought about the man smiling at him like nothing was wrong after rushing him away from the gym doors. _He knew something was happening, that__'__s why he hasn__'__t been home. I believed in him._ He felt so much pain in his heart as he spoke.

"Especially not Tim," the boy answered and they ran down the street towards the smoke and explosions.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

The two children ducked behind the pokemart which was hardly touched by the battle and looked across the street at the doors to the pokemon center. People were rushing into the building like it was a safe haven, carrying injured pokemon, and people into the hospital.

"How do we get inside?" Jenny asked.

The boy looked both directions and then replied, "Act natural, we'll go in and get out as fast as we can."

They walked inside and got in the line where people were trying to get Nurse Joy's attention as quickly as possible. His pokemon were all inside their balls and the two kids looked straight ahead, trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone around them who might recognize them from around town.

The doors opened behind them and many people began running into the building shouting all types of frantic things like they just came out of a warzone which they did.

Both kids gulped as they heard an all too familiar voice coming into the doorway behind them. Luckily there was one person in line behind them so they weren't completely out in the open. Billy was wearing a blue t-shirt and black sweatpants. Jenny had on the same but with a pink shirt and she had a red bow in her hair. They only stood out because of their height.

"Get him upstairs now, tell the doctor a Ponyta caused the burns on his legs." Billy wanted to turn around but also didn't want Tim to see him standing a few feet away. "No, set him down over there, we don't need to burden the doctor's with flesh wounds, you can wrap his head yourself." Tim raised his voice like he was shouting to a group of people, "And can somebody please get me in touch with Maxie."

Another man shouted from right outside the doorway, "Maxie was called away on an important mission last night. He's not here."

Tim frowned, _that explains all the missing personnel._ The man looked around and shouted, "Well get to it!" the kids heard the stomping of feet as people scattered in different directions.

"Are we safe?" Jenny asked the boy next to her who risked glancing behind him. He turned halfway and froze, tilting his head up and staring straight into Tim's eyes behind his glasses.

"Billy, Jenny what're you kids doing here?" he looked down at the pokeballs in Billy's hands. "You got caught up in this?" he growled and then looked back down concerned, "Is Sharon alright?"

"Yeah she's fine," Billy responded a little too quickly. Jenny was avoiding eye contact with the man who'd been watching them for weeks, she couldn't bring herself to look at him, confused and hurt at why he would be trying to hurt them.

Tim looked back and forth to see if any of his men were watching, "Well, how did you do? Did you win?" Billy grinned and nodded, forgetting for a moment who it was that was under his enemy's mask. "That's my boy," he tussled the kid's hair and heard serious shouting behind him. "Sorry kids, I have to go," he bent down and got on one knee, "I want you to get back home and hide there until everything has calmed down. We'll protect you with our lives," Tim pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and then got up and ran back to the door.

The two kids stayed quiet as they moved up the line. Finally Jenny broke the silence right as they were about to be up to Nurse Joy, "Billy, I don't think Tim's a bad guy. Do you?"

The boy looked down at her and frowned, _he was with them, he could__'__ve known what they were planning... but maybe he didn__'__t._ "I don't know, what I do know is that neither side is free of sin. They both attacked us," _unless the Solars in Wyrville were also Nimbus. No, Tim showed us the picture of Volt, if he was a Nimbus general they wouldn__'__t have let him show his face while attacking the town._

"So what are we going to do?" she asked and for the first time Billy realized just how terrified the girl was. Besides the day they escaped from their home town, she had never been in danger before. She had finally gotten back into the routine of waking up, helping Sharon around the house, occasionally going out to train, then washing up and eating with everyone. It was like everything was back to normal whereas Billy kept treating it like it was the end of the world over and over again.

Before he could answer he heard the woman behind the counter say 'Next,' and it was his turn. By this time there were a lot of people waiting behind him with their very injured pokemon and he didn't want to waste any time so he placed his three pokeballs on the counter for Nurse Joy.

As she turned to put them in the machine, Billy reached his right arm around Jenny's head and pulled her in by the right shoulder. "It's going to be alright, I'm going to protect you." She felt oddly comforted by his words and smiled up at the boy.

They waited a few seconds for Nurse Joy to finish with the healing when suddenly the entire building shook. "What was that?" someone behind them asked. Right as they did, a huge crack split the wall behind the counter and a fissure appeared in the ground below them.

Billy kept Jenny's shoulder pulled into him and dove to the side of the newly formed fault. They watched in horror from the ground as people stumbled trying to escape and fell into the massive crater appearing on the floor. The nine year old girl was screaming but she was okay so Billy got up and dove on top of the counter that was now split in half as well.

The machine behind it was sparking violently and burst into flames. "No!" he shouted and jumped behind the counter, trying to put it out.

He heard coughing next to him and looked down. Beneath a fallen piece of wall was the left half of Nurse Joy. The boy reached down and tried to move the rubble to the side but it was too heavy. The woman coughed again and blood came out of her mouth, landing on her lower lip. He couldn't see the right side of her body which was stuck under the wall but the nice lady with red hair sounded like she was trying to tell him something.

Billy leaned in and put his ear right in front of her mouth. "My, left, hand," she whispered and then faded out. He looked up at her but her eyes were closed and he saw no movement coming from her. The room was still filled with screams but he looked down at her left hand and it was curled around something.

He gulped nervously and uncurled the fingers of her hand, trying not to smile as he saw the red balls underneath her palm. She'd managed to get all of his friends out of the machine before it exploded. _I__'__ll never forget this,_ he nodded in appreciation to the nurse and then ran back, leaping over the counter without even touching it and grabbing Jenny without stopping. "We have to go now," he said to her as he attached the pokeballs to his waist.

"What happened to Nurse Joy?" Jenny asked turning around as some trainers were moving to the counter and gasping before turning around with grim looks.

"She's dead," the boy responded coldly. _No time to sugarcoat this for her,_ "and if we don't get out of here soon. We will be too." Jenny was shocked and ran with her neighbor out the door when the ground shook again. They looked down the street and saw a pokemon standing at one corner of the hospital, it looked like a rock with arms and legs. "It's a Graveler, what's it doing?" Billy asked to no one in particular.

He felt another quake from behind him and spun to see three brown heads sticking out of the dirt at the other corner of the hospital on this street. _There are probably two more on the other side, what are they... it can__'__t be,_ all of a sudden, both pokemon used earthquake at the same time and they could feel more being created on the other side of the building.

The corners cracked, "Go go go," Billy shouted as people were running out the front doors. He grabbed Jenny by the elbow and sprinted into the pokemart across the street. The building was empty and Billy ran straight for the counter.

The little girl was staring out the windows as people sprinted away from the shaking building. Its first floor walls were crumpling under the weight of the building without any corner supports. She turned and frowned, "Isn't that stealing?" she walked over to where Billy was shoving potions and other more expensive looking objects into his bag.

"Give me your bag too, we have no clue how long we'll be gone for," the little girl complied and then went to watch the falling hospital. She was terrified but amazed at how powerful pokemon could be when utilized the wrong way.

She watched as glass shattered, falling down onto the street from higher floors. It looked like the building was about to collapse when she head a shout, "Ursaring come out!" she recognized who it was and spun her head to look out her window towards the right corner of the building. The huge bear had both of its arms underneath the collapsing part of the corner and had a strained look on its face as it tried to hold it up. Jenny looked to the other side and saw a water pokemon rolling on its shell, slamming into the Dugtrio while a four armed gray pokemon squeezed the outer corner and tried to hold up the building.

"Everyone get out of the building! You don't have much time!" Tim yelled at the top of his lungs in a very commanding voice. Soon, doctors and nurses were stumbling out the front door with patients using their shoulders as crutches. They had to get down a few flights of stairs and took longer having to drag and carry many of the patients.

"We need to go," Billy said to his neighbor and started for the door.

Right as he reached for the handle he stopped and stared to the left corner of the hospital. His jaw lowered slowly and his lip quivered in fear as he backed away. Jenny tried to move forwards but the boy held an arm out in front and stopped her, _that was, he was__…_

The building started to fall and Tim shouted, "Ursaring, enough, get away from there," the bear let go of its corner and jumped backwards over the knocked out Graveler right as the first floor entirely crumbled and would've crushed the pokemon. "Richard, get Machoke away from your corner!" The man with the glasses started running in front of the falling building and to the other corner where he almost threw up in his mouth.

His own Staryu was on the floor not moving next to an unconscious Machoke. What he almost puked from though, was the man he called friend who had his head turned completely around. Richard was lying on his stomach with his head facing the sky, someone, or something had snapped his neck and knocked out their pokemon.

He felt saddened by the loss of his friend but there were still enemies all over town, there had to be one close so he stayed alert. Tim felt a presence right behind him and spun around fast, he wouldn't have been fast enough but his Ursaring was. The bear pokemon swiped and its fist slammed straight into a purplish pokemon with diamonds for eyes.

"A Sableye," Tim muttered and looked around for its trainer. The pokemon struggled onto its feet and glared at the Ursaring, it sank into the ground and vanished as the trainer and his pokemon were watching it. "We have to regroup with command," Tim told his friend and the two of them started running down the street.

_I hope the kids got out of there in time,_ the building behind him entirely collapsed in a ball of fire and a huge black cloud rose from behind him.

The man ran down the street until he saw the town hall. The old gym looked like it had had some major battles fought in front of it but seeing as the building was still standing, he figured they must've won. He was never a full member of the Nimbus, however the people of the town held him in high regard and he was a personal friend of their leader, Steven. As he entered the building, people parted ways so that he could get by.

He heard arguing and shouting coming from the war room and threw open the door. "…If we run now, everyone left in the city will die."

"We can try to evacuate as many as we can, but word is over three hundred Solar elites are on their way right now. Reinforcements will never make it in time, we have to leave," the other taller man said staring down at a map on the table. "They're coming from all directions except for right here," he pointed to one exit out of the city.

Some of the others seemed to be in agreement but they all heard Tim as he spoke for the first time since entering the room. Most people didn't even notice he came in they were so engrossed in the debate, including the man who was looking down at the map telling them where they needed to go. "Ursaring, use return." Before anyone could panic, the pokemon charged forwards and bashed the man talking in the head.

"What are you doing?!" one of his friends shouted reaching down for his pokeballs. The others were all doing the same but one of the women in the room gasped and pointed down at where the crumpled man was.

Instead of a body on the floor, it was slowly morphing and turning pink as it did. "I just saw Richard," Tim started slowly as he walked up to the table and stood in front of his Ursaring, "his neck was snapped and he lay dead in front of the rubble that was the hospital."

Instantly the room was full of screaming, "The hospital's destroyed?!"

"How did Richard die?"

"We still need to get out of the city!"

"Quiet!" Tim slammed his fist on the table. For a man who rarely got angry, most of the people in the room had never seen him so serious. His face was in a scowl and he made eye contact with each person in the room. "What that Richard impostor was sent here to do, was to lead us into a trap." He pointed at the exit that the Ditto was telling them to go to, "This valley is the perfect place for an ambush, I doubt they have near the numbers they say they do, so they're trying to trick us into running into their hands."

"But if all their men are there, we should just escape from a different route," a person chimed in and got some words of agreement.

"Why would we escape? Give the Solars another town?" he looked around at the friends and townsfolk around him, he could name each one of them and knew that no one wanted to abandon Petalburg. "No," he grabbed a Sharpie that was lying next to the paper and started drawing curved arrows from the city to either side of the valley. "They are most likely situated on either side of the valley, here and here. If we come up from behind at the same time on both sides…"

"They'll be completely overwhelmed," a blonde woman stated with a grin and nodding her head. "I'm in."

"Me too," many others nodded in agreement.

"Then let's go," Tim went deeper into an explanation of the plan and started out for the right side of the valley with one half of the townspeople willing to fight. On his way he saw some movement in an alley between two buildings and stopped. The people next to him looked confused but he gave them small nods and they continued on as he made a sprint for the alley.

He ran in and froze, the two children in front of him looked up too, frozen in their spots. "What are you guys doing here? I told you to get back home," he scolded, he needed to get back to his group before the set time but the kids were important to him.

"That's not our home," Billy stated making the grown man wince. _He__'__s too nice, Tim wouldn__'__t, he couldn__'__t possibly know._ "I know this is going to be hard to believe, but you aren't fighting Solars." The man with glasses looked down at the twelve year old with a confused look.

"Of course we are, they…"

"No!" Billy shouted and looked both ways lowering his voice more. _We have to get out of this city, there are enemies everywhere. I need to protect Jenny,_ he tried to rush because he didn't want to stay any longer than he needed to. "Remember when I was standing outside the gym and you walked out, right before we had our battle?" Tim nodded, not knowing what any of this had to do with Billy's statement. "Next to Maxie were those two guys, one of them blonde and one bald, you know them right?"

Tim flinched thinking about Maxie's right hand men, they always discussed the most brutal war tactics like it was nothing. They cared nothing about civilians as long as they were Solar civilians. "Yes I know them, what does that have to do…" he was interrupted again.

"When we were attacked, I fought one of the enemies," Billy was trying to hurry up and looked Tim straight in the eye because he needed the man to believe this the first time he said it, "He was wearing a red uniform with the black 'S' on it showing that he was a Solar, but he wasn't! It was the bald guy," Tim's face still showed confusion on it, _why would he,_ "The people you're fighting aren't Solars at all, they're your own comrades."

The man looked for a punchline, a smirk on the kid's face followed up by him saying that it was all a joke. But Billy was dead serious, his face hardened by betrayal and fear. _Does Maxie know about this? Maybe it was just that one guy,_ he thought about the others he had seen though and they all wore masks, none wanted to be recognized since they personally knew everyone there.

"Bye Tim," Jenny said and let herself get taken by the hand and ran down the alley away from him.

"Where are you going?" Tim called as Billy was about to turn the corner with his friend.

The boy turned back and grimaced, "Anywhere but here."

**A/n** **Thanks to everyone who****'****s been reviewing. The feedback I get from you guys really keeps me wanting to update and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Just like that he was gone and Tim had no time to chase after them, he had to get back to his group before he missed the ambush. Whether or not they were ambushing fellow Nimbus soldiers, it didn't matter to him, whoever attacked the city needed to face justice.

He didn't have time to waste and let his Girafarig come out. His Staryu was K. so he was down to three pokemon for the ambush of the ambushers. Something was pestering him though and he finally realized what it was, _who was controlling that Sableye, and the Ditto? I didn__'__t hear any attacks called out so those pokemon must be highly trained, maybe more than we can handle,_ he shook the doubts out of his mind and jumped on the back of his yellow pokemon. "Go," he kicked the side and she started galloping towards the tree line.

He caught up with his group right before they got in position and his friend Chuck turned to him relieved. "What took you so long? I was afraid we were going to have to go in without you. It is your plan and all so you give the signal."

The man nodded and they scattered out, hiding in bushes and behind trees, They moved towards the edges of the valley where they suspected the enemy were hiding and just as Tim thought that maybe they had caught wind of the Nimbus' plan, he finally saw one of the Solars, _if it even is a Solar._

He tried to stay focused but the nagging doubt in the back of his mind was making it difficult. The chances that Billy just saw someone that looked like Maxie's subordinate were low, especially if he was willing to tell someone about it. He also thought the chances that the kid was lying to him were even lower, the look on his face was a look of a boy who had just seen the truth and was broken.

_He__'__s never going to be able to trust anyone ever again,_ the thought flew into Tim's head but this time he was able to push it aside. The man in front of him leaned forwards and looked down into the ravine pass that leads out of Petalburg. They seemed to be getting impatient and if he waited any longer the enemy might get suspicious. _Well, here goes,_ he shot the flare gun up into the air and at the same time sent his Girafarig to stomp the Solar.

Explosions and crashes were heard throughout the forest as the ambush commenced. After Tim's pokemon was stepping on the injured back of the Solar, the man ran forwards and snatched four pokeballs from around the red soldier's waist.

"Hey, give those," the man coughed as Girafarig stomped down harder into his back. The man with the glasses reached down and pulled out zip ties from his pocket, tying up the enemy's wrists and ankles together and then running off to help out his friends. _Stay out of this war kids, it__'__ll be over soon._

sc

Back on the other side of Petalburg, Billy and Jenny were at the edge of the city. They saw the road out of town and were planning on taking it but as they were about to leave, they saw dust clouds rising in the distance.

"Is it the Solars?" Jenny asked in fear.

The boy remembered the dust that flew up when Volt and his army of Tauroses charged Wyrville. "I don't know," _it could be Nimbus reinforcements too, either way we need to get out of the way._ They ran for the closest building which was the one closest to the entrance to the city.

As they watched the dust cloud approach they finally saw it was actually sand. The pokemon inside were running fast with trainers on their backs but a few of them kept using sandstorm to keep their numbers and formation hidden from the enemy. Right as they entered the city, Billy saw through the dust a man in an all black uniform with a red 'N' on the front of the left part of the chest.

"There," the kids heard a man shout and saw bird pokemon flying around in the sky. They looked up and watched as the birds dive-bombed the newly arriving Nimbus, making them scatter around the town. Explosions started ringing out again and the small house they were hiding in didn't seem to be sturdy enough to handle it.

Jenny popped her head up from her hiding spot to look out the window as a flaming horse sprinted by. Following right behind it was a small purple sphere with a haze around it and she dropped to the floor in fright.

The boy looked around as well and muttered, "They're everywhere," but as he said it, Billy saw his moment and picked up the fallen girl, "Now's our chance," he ran for the door and swung it open. There was no one between them and the path out of town. "Run!" he shouted and they started sprinting for the open path.

"Look out," Jenny shouted and stopped running. A Rhyhorn was charging after some faster pokemon and couldn't keep up but saw a new enemy to attack. Its master told it that everyone in the city was fair game so it raised a foot up over the little boy and started to bring it down hard in a stomp.

Billy looked up afraid as the rock beast's foot was coming down. _I can__'__t dodge in time, it__'__s not over, I can__'__t die here,_ a red light flashed from below his gaze and the foot coming down was halted as the monster was slammed by a ferocious blast of water right beneath it. The stream slammed into its underside and lifted the pokemon off the ground and it flipped in midair, landing on its back.

The twelve year old looked down and saw Croconaw standing there in front of him. The pokemon turned around and looked at his master, determining that he was safe. Croconaw turned back to his enemy as it rolled over and got back to its feet, now enraged at the blue and yellow pokemon.

"How did you," Jenny started, confused at how his pokemon came out on its own.

"I have no idea," Billy was even more confused. Croconaw had emerged without him telling his friend to do anything.

The two pokemon were glaring at each other now but before anything else could happen, a voice sounded in their ears louder than anything they'd ever heard before. The kids reached up and clasped their hands over their ears as the voice shouted, "Enough!"

All the explosions in the city seemed to stop at the same time. "This battle is happening too close to my home, leave now and I won't destroy your armies."

The voice got somewhat quieter and they all looked up to see where it was coming from. In the sky above the city was a dragon, Billy slid his pokedex out in awe and it showed him what was in the air, "Salamence," he whispered and looked to see what level it was before fumbling with his device and almost dropping it. _Level 89! This is insanity,_ he tried to back away and grabbed onto Jenny's arm.

Croconaw followed his master's lead and jogged after him as they made for the path. The rock monster before them charged into Croconaw and hit him with his horn. Billy watched his friend get thrown into the tree on the right side of the start of the path.

"I said Enough!" the voice boomed over the city and Jenny looked around, realizing that the battles had not all stopped. Pokemon were still running wild with and without trainers, fires were breaking out all over.

Croconaw stumbled to its feet and glared back at the Rhyhorn who caught him off guard. "Croconaw, bite," the creature listened to Billy's command and charged, jumping to the side to avoid another hit from the horn and bit into the other pokemon's side.

The little girl next to Billy was looking around in fear, something was happening, something bad.

"You have brought this upon yourselves," the voice sounded out again, this time it seemed disappointed.

"Uhh, Billy," the girl tugged on his arm.

"Not now," he pointed at the enemy, "finish it with water gun!"

As his pokemon was starting the attack, Jenny screamed, "Billy turn around God damn it!" the boy was so shocked that the little girl would say those words let alone scream them that he did as she said and dropped his jaw.

A massive wave was getting bigger and rose above all the buildings in the city, spreading wider and wider as it covered the width of the town. _What the Hell?_ he took a step backwards and fell down, staring in disbelief at the size of the tsunami before them.

Riding at the top of the giant wave was a blue pokemon with four legs and gray fins on top of its head. This time Billy recognized the pokemon from school without pulling out his pokedex. _Swampert,_ he scrambled onto his feet and looked over to see his Croconaw staring up at the giant wave. His pokemon was standing next to the unconscious form of the Rhyhorn that couldn't handle the water gun from before.

"SURF!" the voice shouted and Billy looked up to see the Salamence flying in circles above their heads. He watched in absolute terror as the wave started pushing forwards and smashing through buildings. Oddly enough, the wave didn't break the buildings, water flowed into them and smashed some windows, drenching everything and everyone, but the force of the wave wasn't crushing anyone. It sucked them in and they reached for air but couldn't find any, stuck inside the massive wave.

"Let's go," Jenny was tugging his arm and he finally pried his eyes away from the wave.

"Yeah," she released his arm and they both started running out of town. As they were, the boy heard footsteps closing fast from behind him.

He turned around and looked up as a larger, more powerful version of the pokemon he was just fighting appeared. This one had a trainer on its back, the person was wearing a red uniform and he knew it wasn't really a Solar inside the costume. This pokemon had a larger horn and was much taller, standing on two legs so it towered above Billy.

The man on top of the monster shouted, "At least we can finish off one weakling before we retreat. Rhydon use horn drill," the horn on its head shone and started spinning.

Croconaw was leading the group and turned to see its master about to be attacked, he wasn't going to make it in time, "Croconaw," it shouted loudly and a red light appeared from Billy's belt.

The horn drill was a foot away from Billy's face but a purple body appeared between the monster and the kid. The twelve year old had his eyes clenched shut but as he opened them he didn't know what he was seeing. Nidorino was right in front of his face and flew back, slamming into Billy who tried to catch his friend but wound up getting thrown to the ground himself by the force of the hit.

Nidorino was already knocked out from the one hit, but Croconaw cared not about the danger and jumped in front of Billy who was holding his arms around his injured pokemon. It stuck its arms out to either side and growled at the Rhydon which was frowning. The kid looked up at the monster with the man on its head and realized that the Rhydon was not enjoying this, if anything it looked sorry about the hit on the Nidorino.

"Croconaw don't," Billy pulled off Nidorino's pokeball from his belt and recalled it. "Thank you friend," he whispered as he put it back, then he looked at Croconaw who was still facing the enemy, "you aren't strong enough, I don't want you getting hurt too." His friend clenched its teeth and growled, it didn't matter how strong Rhydon was, he would protect his master.

"Use it again," the masked figure on top of his pet commanded. Rhydon complied and its horn began spinning but before it could attack, a pillar of fire came down from the sky and engulfed the pokemon and its master.

Billy, Jenny, and Croconaw all stared at the spot the two enemies were before but as the flames disappeared they saw the man on top was underneath his unconscious giant pokemon that must've weighed over a ton. They were both covered in burn marks and the man's clothes were now charred black. _What?_ the boy couldn't comprehend what had just happened, it was so fast. The flames descended from the sky as if God himself was smiting the man before him.

The nine year old girl looked up and saw where the flames really came from. A Salamence flew down from the sky and made Croconaw sweat just being in its presence. The light blue dragon with red wings bowed its head to the ground and allowed its master to walk over its back and down its neck to the grass.

"Who are you?" Billy asked trying not to let his voice quiver. Jenny got behind her friend and poked her head out to his right side, staring at the man who rides dragons. Despite its fear, Croconaw still stepped between Billy and the Salamence.

The man was taller than Billy, but as the boy looked closer he saw that it wasn't a man at all. He was a teenager, seventeen maybe eighteen years old. The teen had spiky white hair and a green bandana wrapped around his forehead. He was wearing a tight black shirt and the man was pretty muscular, but the things that caught Billy's eye were the amount of pokeballs he had on his waist. There were four on one side and three on the other, he was amazed at how powerful just one of this man's pokemon was, six more like it seemed impossible.

"My name is Brendan," the teenager responded to Billy's question and flashed a smile at the girl who had her head sticking out from behind him. The smile made Billy relax a little bit seeing as the man had also just saved them but as he was lowering his guard, the huge blue pokemon from on top of the wave dropped down next to the Salamence.

The kids didn't even see it coming but Brendan didn't turn in fright like they did. Instead he pulled off one of the balls on his waist, this one was white on the bottom and the top, it was unlike any pokeball the twelve year old had ever seen. A flash of red left the ball and surrounded Swampert, pulling it back into its home and Brendan reattached the ball at his waist. "You," he pointed at Billy and the boy gulped.

"W-what?" he asked standing firm.

"I was watching you from the sky," he looked down at Billy's waist and the boy instinctively put his hand in front of his pokeballs to protect them, "you didn't call out your Nidorino, yet it appeared anyway to save you. It sacrificed itself, I've never seen such loyalty in a pokemon, you must be close friends with it."

"I'm friends with all my pokemon," Billy responded. All the mayhem of the last few hours was catching up with him and he was holding back tears.

"What happened here?" the man asked him and he couldn't hold back anymore, even being in front of Jenny he couldn't hold back a few tears from watering out of his eyes.

"I don't know," he sniffled and rubbed a tear from his cheek. "The Nimbus are attacking the Solars, the Nimbus are fighting the Nimbus. Everyone keeps fighting and they don't even know who they're fighting against!" Brendan looked down at the kid thoughtfully. "Both sides have good reason to hate each other because both sides keep attacking cities, the problem is that no one knows that they're doing it. All the Solars here are actually Nimbus soldiers in disguise."

"What?" Brendan asked suddenly interrupting the kid.

"The men in the red uniforms, they aren't Solars. Everyone here is fighting each other and they don't even realize they're attacking their own friends. It has to stop," Billy was getting angry and the tears stopped flowing.

"Who do you side with?" _Nimbus attacking Nimbus, Steven could you have really stooped so low to send your own men to fight each other just to make it look like the Solars were attacking? Or is it you, Maxie,_ the man grimaced thinking about the red head whom he fought so long ago.

"No one," the kid responded. "Both sides are wrong, which is why I'm going to keep training," he was on a rant now and didn't think before he said what was in his mind, "and when I'm strong enough I will end this war on my own since you decided to hide away in your home town." The twelve year old stopped and froze, a minute ago he realized who the man he was talking to was and he was angry. Brendan looked down pitying the boy but Billy wasn't finished, "Why?" he asked the taller man before him.

"Why what?" the Champ responded.

"Why haven't you ended this war already?" the kid asked.

The teenager closed his eyes, "Because I still don't know which side is right."

"Why does it matter who's right!?" Billy shouted surprising the older kid. He was furious, "You say you have the power to end this war if you want, but then why haven't you? It doesn't matter what the sides are fighting for, no one even knows, but while you sat around doing nothing, our parents were slaughtered!" Billy no longer cared that the man saved him from Rhydon, he was venting all the pent up anger he stored over the last month at this man who was so easy to blame.

Brendan looked down at his feet and in a low voice said, "I'm sorry about your parents. The reason I don't join in the war is because I was there when it started, I know what they're fighting to accomplish. Two of my closest friends are the leaders of the Solar and the Nimbus armies, I can't," he sighed and smiled at the kid before him. "Did you mean what you said about ending the war yourself?"

Jenny looked at her friend and saw determination like none other on his face, "Yes."

"Good, because I'm about to give you a choice," he reached behind him and unstrapped the bag he had on his back. "You can come with me back to Littleroot, ignore the fact that a war is tearing apart the region and live in peace with us," the girl behind him tensed up as the offer seemed too good to be true. "Or," Brendan continued, "you can take this and continue on your path." He held out his hand and a weird disk was sitting on it.

"What is it?" Jenny asked stepping out from behind her friend.

"It's called a Hidden Machine, or HM for short. This one contains surf," he looked at the boy's Croconaw. "It's a very useful move and you won't be able to navigate the entire region without it. HM's are very rare, but I'm willing to part with one of them as my pokemon have already been taught the move." Brendan held it out in front of Billy, "Your choice, safety, or…"

The kid reached out and grabbed the disk, "How do I use it?"

"Wait Billy, are you sure about this? We might be safer going with him," the little girl said looking at the giant blue and red dragon that destroyed the Rhydon like it was nothing.

Ignoring the girl Brendan explained, "I'll show you so that next time you find one you can use it on your own." Brendan held the disk out in front of Croconaw's chest and it glowed bright for a few seconds before flashing and making Croconaw's chest flash as well. "It's done, though if you are using a TM, which is similar to this, it will disappear after you use it so make sure its put to good use."

"Billy really we should talk about this," Jenny said to the boy and he turned to her. His face had a large smile on it and he shook his head slowly at her.

In a quiet voice he said, "It will be safer with him." He stepped towards her and wrapped her in a hug, "Which is exactly why you're not coming with me."

"What?!" she tried to pull away but he kept holding her close.

"I swore I'd protect you; to your parents, and to myself. The road I'm taking I don't know if I'll be able to keep that promise." He backed up a few feet and smiled at the girl, making eye contact as tears began welling up in her eyes, "I'm going to miss you." He slid the disk that Brendan handed back to him in his bag and put it on his back, pulling the strings shut tight.

"I want to come with you, you're all I have left," she sniffled between cries and Billy thought about changing his mind for a second but it was a passing thought. "Don't leave me."

"Whenever you feel afraid," he grabbed her hand and pressed it against the left side of her chest, "just remember that I will come back for you. I might be gone for a long time, but when I return we can finally get back to the way it was." He lifted up her chin and leaned forwards, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Now go," he gave her a light shove towards the dragon and she nodded.

As she walked past, Brendan hoisted her up and put her on top of Salamence's head. She walked down the neck to the body and waited for the pilot. The twelve year old stepped close to Brendan and whispered so Jenny wouldn't hear him, "If she gets hurt in any way," the teen looked down and made eye contact with the kid's cold dark eyes, "I _will_ kill you."

Billy stepped back and smiled at the crying girl on the back of the pokemon. Brendan felt unnerved, even hearing the threat come from such a young child it sent shivers down his spine. As he backed away he called to the kid, "I didn't get involved, but I've heard rumors. Head to Fallabor, it's another city not owned by Solar or Nimbus, one of the only ones left. I believe you'll find some answers there." The kid nodded and looked at the back of the pokemon. Jenny waved to her friend and he waved back, not knowing when, or if he would ever see her again.

"Bye Jenny," he called out.

"Bye big bro," she shouted back and the Salamence took off and they were both gone. Billy looked down to Croconaw who was watching the dragon fly away, sad to see Jenny go. It made a sound like a whimper but saw Billy watching and changed the sound to a growl halfway through to keep up appearances. "It's okay buddy, I'm going to miss her too."

They looked back at Petalburg City, it was so quiet that it was hard to imagine that a giant battle was occurring only minutes before. _Goodbye Sharon, Tim, thanks for everything._ Billy turned down the path and started walking, Croconaw at his side.

**A/n Hello again and thanks for reading. Leave a review and tell me what you think, I love hearing your feedback. This was kind of an end to part one I guess, I****'****ve already written a solid three more chapters and this seems like a good place to break before updating the next one. I hope you enjoyed!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

A day after Billy left Petalburg City, he was already in and out of the woods to the north. Most of the pokemon in the thick woods were a lower level than the ones he'd been fighting around the city and none of his pokemon leveled during the start of the journey except for his Pidgeotto. He found a medicine labelled 'Revive' when he was looking through the goods he took from the pokemart and gave it to his Nidorino, bringing it back to half health without even having a pokemon center around.

He knew he had seen more but when he couldn't find them he realized they must've went into Jenny's bag. _Jenny, I hope she__'__s okay._ Croconaw seemed to know what he was thinking about and nudged him as they walked down the road.

There was a river on his left as he walked down the path but he saw a bridge in the distance. There was fog on the river and he couldn't see the other side of the bridge but he hadn't seen a single trainer for miles. There was one guy looking for bug pokemon in the forest but as soon as Billy approached him the man ran for his life.

As he got to the side of the bridge he was on, he saw a sign with red graffiti on it. "This bridge belongs to me," it was signed on the bottom, "-Drago." _Maybe I should just surf around the bridge._ He'd been wanting an excuse to try out the new move but the idea of a challenge on the bridge was too big to let up.

"Let's go boy," he started jogging down the bridge and Croconaw followed him. They ran right into the fog and it was pretty thick. They could barely see each other running side by side. It started to thin out by halfway and Billy was starting to get disappointed. He and his pokemon started walking, "Looks like this Drago isn't going to show himself."

As he said it they both heard creaking wood behind them and spun back around. "Try to run right past me and think you'll escape? Think again," a bolt of electricity flew out of the fog and struck the floor right in front of the two friends. Croconaw got in a fighting stance and Billy put his hand on his other pokeballs, wondering whether or not he was going to need to use them.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Billy shouted into the fog as he saw an outline of a person approaching. The outline was smaller than he thought it would be and as it got closer he realized that the person was a boy, no older than he was.

"I'm challenging you," the kid approached and Billy could finally make out some features. He had blonde hair spiked in all different directions and dark green eyes. "Wait, you're not a Nimbus or Solar grunt are you? Can never tell…"

"No I'm not," Billy grinned at the kid, "and sure, let's battle."

"Great," the kid held his hands out to the side and two pokemon ran forwards, coming to either side of his feet. "You know how a double battle works?"

"Of course," Billy nodded at Croconaw who stepped forwards and chomped its teeth a few times. He grabbed the pokeball on his left side and tossed it up in the air, "Pidgeotto, you're up." The bird appeared in the sky and squawked, "Who do you send out first?"

"These two guys," he nudged them with his legs and the two pokemon crossed paths and walked out in front of him. They were smaller than Billy's pokemon which he wasn't used to, usually he was the underdog, it was going to feel weird having the bigger pokemon this time. "Plusle, Minun, you guys got this."

Billy pulled out his pokedex and pointed it at the enemies. His thoughts about not being the underdog went away as he saw that both enemies were level twenty eight. His were twenty three and one below that, _the odds have been worse. Besides, we wanted a challenge,_ he jumped backwards and shouted, "Gust on Minun, bite on Plusle."

The bird swooped down and sent a gust of wind at the blue and yellow mouse pokemon. At the same time, Croconaw ran forwards and bit onto the other red mouse.

"Shock wave," the opponent shouted and both yellow enemies glowed and zapped at the same time. Croconaw backed up and Pidgeotto felt electricity flow through it. Billy looked down at his pokedex and didn't see any health loss but he saw that his pokemon were paralyzed.

"Oh so you have one of those too," the kid facing him pulled out a red device and smirked seeing his enemies were paralyzed. "Now spark," two bolts of electricity shot out from his pokemon and hit Pidgeotto and Croconaw.

Billy watched the hp of his bird pokemon go down almost half but Croconaw went down almost into the red. "Haha, I can tell by the expression on your face that you don't know what just happened." Billy looked up at Drago, the kid was pointing and laughing at his Croconaw, "water is weak against electricity, everyone knows that." The twelve year old did remember hearing something like that when he was in school.

_This kid is getting on my nerves,_ "Pidgeotto use sand-attack," he called up to his bird pokemon and then looked at Croconaw, _now__'__s as good a time as any._ "Croconaw use surf," the blonde boy in front of him laughed out loud.

"There's no way your pokemon can know surf, it's way too low a level. Plus the HM is impossible to, find," he droned off as he watched water swell around the base of Croconaw and lift up in the air. Pidgeotto tried to move but sparks flew off its body and it just floated there right above the top of the wave. "Ahhh!" the boy shouted as a huge wave hit his pokemon and then washed through him before collapsing down onto the bridge.

Now it was Billy's turn to laugh, the boy in front of him was soaked and his pokemon were struggling to get up. He looked at the pokedex and then grinned at his luck, the move had been a critical hit on Plusle and it was K. . _Whoa, Surf is so powerful._

"Crap," the other boy exclaimed. "Even with the crit, it shouldn't have been a, wait I forgot about STAB."

Billy heard what he said and called over, "What's STAB?"

The other kid huffed in annoyance and called back, "You should at least know some things about battling. STAB is when you use a move the same type as your pokemon, it causes extra damage and that's why my Plusle was defeated by your crappy pokemon."

Both Croconaw and Billy growled at the statement. "I'm not done yet," the kid continued and reached for the only ball he had left on his waist. "This is my bridge, Pikachu go!" Another small yellow mouse appeared, this time a little bigger than the others. The kid called back his Plusle and then turned to Minun and his newest addition, "You guys can do this."

"Croconaw nice job," Billy pet his pokemon on the top of the head and Pidgeotto flew down with its head bowed. "You did great too, here take this," he whispered and pulled out two paralyze heals from his bag, giving them to his pokemon.

"Alright let's keep going!" Drago called out. "Pikachu, use double team," the mouse started vibrating and appearing all around their side of the bridge. Billy kept thinking he saw the real one just for it to fade away. "Minun," the blue pokemon jumped forwards, "quick attack."

"Pidgeotto use quick attack," the bird started flying towards the sprinting mouse and both hit each other in midair, knocking each other back to the floor. The boy heard beeping and looked down seeing his bird was in the red but still kicking. Drago heard the beeping too and looked down for the first time noticing that his enemies were no longer paralyzed.

_Crap, that Pikachu is level 32, this kid isn__'__t playing around._ "Croconaw, use water gun," the pokemon shot a blast of water towards one of the Pikachu outlines but it went straight through and missed the real one.

"Both of you use thunder wave," blasts of electricity shot out and hit Croconaw but missed Pidgeotto.

Billy was getting nervous, even with Nidorino in reserves, his pokemon weren't fairing well. An idea flashed in his head, "Pidgeotto come back," he held out his pokeball and the bird flew into it in a flash of red light. A blast of electricity hit the spot Pidgeotto was a second later and he knew if he didn't call him back he would've been knocked out.

"What do you think you're doing?" Drago scoffed, "Giving up in the middle of a fight," he laughed at the other kid.

"Nope," Billy responded ceasing Drago's annoying laughter. "Nidorino I choose you," the purple beast appeared in a flash of red light and growled its name a couple times. "Double kick," the purple pokemon charged forwards and kicked Plusle twice knocking it through the fog and unconscious.

"Rrggh," Drago frowned and yelled to Pikachu, "It's all up to you. Use thunderbolt," the pokemon charged up an attack and fired it at Nidorino, bringing him down into the red in one hit.

_I can__'__t let this drag on, a few more attacks like that and it__'__s all over._ "Croconaw use bite," his water pokemon charged forwards and bit onto Pikachu. Drago was hoping the paralysis would keep him down but it failed him once again. "And Nidorino use horn attack," his pokemon ran forwards and slammed its horn into Pikachu, knocking it down into the yellow.

"Use double team again," Drago called out and Pikachu started appearing all over in front of the kid.

"That won't work," he shouted and looked to Croconaw, "Use surf." The wave that appeared covered the width of the bridge and was at least fifteen feet up in the air, there was nowhere for Pikachu to go. His pokemon rode up the wave and sent it crashing forwards, slamming into a Pikachu on the way before decreasing and crashing back down.

"No!" Drago shouted angrily as he saw Pikachu's health go to nothing on his pokedex. The boy hated losing but it was clear he had lost. Billy was glad too because all his pokemon were getting low on health and he didn't want to use up his potions considering he didn't have any money to buy new ones. He also fist pumped when he saw Croconaw's experience bar get him to the next level now at twenty four.

"It was a good match," the twelve year old admitted truthfully and walked up to Drago extending a hand.

The other boy looked up and had a tear in his left eye which he wiped away quickly and then glared at Billy. "Get away from me," he said and back away, recalling his unconscious pokemon and staring at his balls like they were dead inside.

"What's wrong? Don't handle losing very well?" Billy joked and grinned at the kid but he wasn't in a joking mood.

"You think this is a joke?" Drago asked him angrily and Billy's smile went away. "Why do you think I live on a bridge? I can't go home to Rustboro because I ran when they tried drafting us for the Solars, and I can't go to Petalburg because they'll just accuse me of being a spy." The kid sat down in defeat and laid back with his head resting on the side of the bridge.

"They were drafting kids our age to join them?" Billy asked in disgust.

"No, just me," the other boy responded. "I had stronger pokemon than everyone else in my school, even the older kids. I beat adults all around the city and when adults were getting drafted they heard about me. I said no but they wouldn't let me escape so I fought two of their grunts and ran for my life. That was a year ago."

"You've been here for a year and never lost?!" Billy questioned suddenly more proud of his achievement.

The kid blushed and then remembered just losing to this other kid and frowned again. "I would beat people and demand food and supplies instead of money but I do have some." Drago reached behind him and pulled out a hundred and twenty bucks from his bag, counting himself off three twenties and then rolling up the other three and holding them out for Billy.

The twelve year old stared at the sixty bucks amazed, "Really?"

"Wow have you really never been in a battle before?" Drago scoffed and then saw the kid in front of him's eyes darken for a few seconds and his playful smile disappeared. "Oh, nevermind, well usually when you get in a battle just for fun, the loser hands off half of his or her cash to the winner." The kid thought for a moment and then reached back into his bag, "Here you deserve this too."

Billy recognized the shape of the thing Drago was handing him and grinned snatching it quick. "Is this a…"

"It's a TM, I found it on the side of the road up ahead but all my pokemon already knew it. It obtains thunder wave, a move that paralyzes the foe but doesn't inflict any damage." Drago gave him the disk and Billy put it in his bag. "Yeah I guess none of your pokemon now can learn it but sooner or later you'll have one that can."

Billy stared at the boy in front of him for a few seconds and then grinned, "You know what Drago, I'm going to help you out." He reached for the boy's pokeballs but the other kid smacked his hand away.

"What are you trying to pull?" the kid growled.

The other kid held his hands up defensively. "I'm going to take your pokemon to the center in town and then bring them back healed. That's what you want right?" Drago understood what Billy was saying and nodded, a smirk slowly forming on his face.

"What's your name bro," Drago asked.

"I'm Billy," the blonde boy held out his hand and this time Billy extended his and they shook for real.

"I trust you," he removed his pokeballs and handed them to the other twelve year old. Billy nodded at him and clipped the balls onto his waist as if they were his own.

"I'll keep them safe," the boy called back his own pokemon and started heading off for the other side of the bridge.

"Wait," Drago called to him and he looked back into the fog. "When you get into Rustboro you'll see a lot of Solar soldiers. I don't know what happened to you man, but do _not_ start a fight with one of them in the biggest city they have left."

"Gotcha," the black haired boy said and turned, walking the rest of the way across the bridge and emerging from the fog. He still had a ways to go before he was going to reach the city but from where he stood he could see the tops of skyscrapers in the distance over the trees. _In and out, Fallarbor is far to the north of this city, I can__'__t get too distracted._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Billy fought the blonde boy on the bridge right before sunset and as he was reaching the entrance of the city he could see the sun dropping below the horizon. The sky was still light but that wouldn't last for much longer.

_Before I restock on food and supplies with the money he gave me, I should heal up all the pokemon. _Drago had grown on him the longer they spent battling and then talking afterwards. The first building he saw upon entering the town was the pokemart but he could see the red glowing light of the pokemon center right behind it and rushed over there.

It was a bustling city and there were people hurrying about, some on bikes, most others on foot. Billy got to the front doors of the center and walked inside, there was only one person on line but she was handed a sole pokeball and the woman thanked the lady behind the counter.

"Hi can you," Billy stopped mid-sentence and stared straight ahead in disbelief as the woman looked back at him, the same woman he watched die a few days before. "You're alive!" he ran up to the counter excitedly.

The nurse behind the counter was used to people recognizing her because of her identical sisters and cousins, however the reaction this kid had after seeing her was not one she liked. "What do you mean, 'you're alive?' Who are you?" the nurse asked tilting her head confused at the kid.

"Nurse Joy?" the kid asked thinking that maybe he was talking to the wrong woman. The nurse he knew also knew him because of how often he frequented the pokemon center while in Petalburg. _She can__'__t be here, she__'__s dead._

The woman began whispering, "Please kid, I have siblings and relatives in every city, did something happen to one of them?"

He knew that saying anything would compromise himself but he couldn't lie to this woman who helped people and pokemon day in and day out for a living. He bowed his head and responded, "In Petalburg city, there was a battle. She, she saved my pokemon, but," he trailed off and the Nurse Joy behind the counter wiped a single tear from her eye.

"So you're a Nimbus?" she said, suddenly scowling at the kid.

"No," he said sternly and the woman behind the counter tried to see if he was lying but if he was then he was really good because it seemed like he was telling the truth. She softened and tears began coming to her eyes as the news of her late sister sank in. "I'm so sorry, she was an amazing woman, I'll never forget what she did as the pokemon center was breaking all around us."

Nurse Joy smiled, at least having some comfort in that her sister died heroically. "Don't worry," she told the kid who was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, "I won't tell anyone where you're from."

"Thank you," he felt like telling her he was actually from Wyrville, but figured that the Solars didn't tell their people what it was they were doing and she wouldn't know about the cause of the destruction that befell it. "Can you…"

"Of course," she held out her hands and Billy removed his pokeballs handing them all to the woman. She saw six of them and looked questioningly at the kid, he didn't seem like a professional but she'd check the contents of the balls while they were in the machine.

The nurse put the balls in and saw what pokemon were inside and at what levels. She was impressed seeing the first three and smiled at the young boy before her, when she looked back at the machine however, her smile turned into a look of confusion which changed into one of gratitude. "How is he doing?" she whispered to the kid who took a step back and started sweating. "Don't fret," she assured him, "Drago used to come in here once or twice a day because of the training he put himself through. I was sad when he left, but it was for the best," she looked to him waiting for a response to her original question.

"He's fine, I beat him in a battle but he told me he couldn't come back into town so I offered to heal his friends for him." Nurse Joy handed the kid back his pokeballs and smiled.

"When you give those back to him, let him know that most people understand why he ran and don't blame him. If he puts on a pair of sunglasses and a fake mustache I'm sure he could get in and out of town without anyone saying anything." The red haired woman laughed and Billy chuckled along with her.

"I think he's more worried about soldiers finding him and drafting him for good." The nurse nodded in understanding and Billy grinned, waving to her as he turned around. "Thank you so much, I'm sorry again about your sister."

"It was a pleasure to meet you," she called after the boy. She never got his name but knew that she would see him again. _Joy,_ she grabbed the phone next to her computer and sighed, knowing it was going to be a long night as she dialed the first of her sisters to let her know what had happened.

When Billy exited the pokemon center he realized that dark had fallen upon the city and the streets had cleared out mostly, a few stragglers were still walking the sidewalks. _For a big city, everyone seems to go to bed pretty early,_ actually it was suspicious how little amount of people were out. He looked up at one of the street lamps that cast a shadow behind him and thought about how Jenny was doing. _Remember, not a safe place to be taking breaks,_ he did a quick three sixty and thought he saw movement from behind a building but he shook it off, _must__'__ve been my imagination._

He left the city and made his way back towards the bridge, it wasn't too far of a walk but he let his Nidorino come out to get some exercise while he was at it. When he got to the bridge, Drago was sitting at the edge of it, not waiting in the middle like before.

"Did you do it?" the boy asked looking up hopefully. He'd been having nagging doubts about leaving his precious friends with pretty much a complete stranger but his doubts turned out to be unfounded as Billy did return.

"Yep," he handed the other boy his pokeballs.

They smiled at each other and Drago was about to express his thanks when a voice sounded from the darkness behind them, "So this is where you've been hiding."

The blonde boy's face turned into a grimace and he stared Billy straight in the eyes, "You didn't check to see if you were being followed?!" The other kid remembered seeing something in the city and felt like he was being watched but thought it was his own paranoia.

A higher pitched sneering voice sounded from the other side of them and the kids spun around as a small man with blue hair walked out of the darkness. Looking back over they saw a taller, dark skinned individual walking towards them as well. Both had on red uniforms and Billy whispered, "Sorry."

"Too late for that now, I'm caught." Drago bent his head in defeat.

"What? You're not even going to try and fight them?" the twelve year old asked in shock.

"He knows there's no point," the blue haired guy sneered.

The black man started speaking, "On one side are the evil Nimbus, he can't go there because they'll rip him apart just for being from a Solar city. On the other side he has us, who have to bring him in for avoiding the draft." He ducked his head and then stared at the boy determined, "I'd feel sorry for you but I was taken from my family and put with this buffoon here so it's time for you to come join us."

"You don't have to give up," Billy tried to help. If Drago was caught and it was his fault he'd never forgive himself.

"There's no point," Drago sighed. "If I run now, they still know where I am. They're right, I'd still rather go with them than to Petalburg."

Billy thought fast and shouted, "There's another option." The two men on either side looked at the strange kid that they followed because they'd never seen him before. It was just their lucky day that they stumbled upon the one they were actually looking for. The blonde boy looked at his new rival and cocked his head to the side._ Here goes,_ "Why don't you come with me?"

"Come with you where?" The two Solars all of a sudden realized they were being ignored, and what was worse was that their prize was thinking about running.

"I'm heading north for Fallarbor, it's been lonely since I lost my last companion a few days ago. Do you want to join me?" Drago looked back at the men on each side of him and then back at Billy.

"Anything is better than joining up for a cause I couldn't care less about, even if I knew what it was." That struck close to home with the two grunts who growled knowing that they were just joining the side that controlled their home, there was no ideological incentive in it for them.

"If that's your choice then we'll have to make you come with us," the blue haired man threw his pokeball up in the air and the dark skinned man followed suit. The first man's pokemon was a Geodude, small round rock pokemon and the other one, Billy looked up and then more up as he finally saw the top of the pokemon in front of him. "Geodude, grab them."

"Crap," Drago realized they made an all rock team just so that none of his attacks would have any affect on them. "Electricity is powerless against these pokemon."

"Don't worry about it," Billy was already sliding his pokedex back into his bag. _Lowest levels I__'__ve seen yet from trainers,_ Nidorino seemed ready to fight but he held up a hand for his pokemon to wait and instead called out Croconaw. "One attack," he held up one finger and the two Solars suddenly felt terrified as the blue and yellow pokemon seemed to smirk a toothy grin.

"Enough, Onix tackle it," the two rock pokemon were now right in front of Billy and Drago.

"Croconaw," he said in a calm, unnerving voice, "surf." An enormous wave rose and carried up Croconaw on top of it. The two men tried turning and running but the wave was almost as tall as the man's Onix and it knocked over the pokemon, throwing it backwards with the Geodude and both enemies.

"Ahh," the blue haired man shouted then gurgled as he was surrounded by water. The wave knocked out both of the enemies' pokemon at once and Croconaw flipped off the wave landing back next to his master.

"Nido," the purple pokemon turned its head the other way, supposedly not impressed by the showboating.

"We've got to get out of here, the blue haired man said stumbling to his feet and recalling his pet. They didn't stand a chance against this kid and the other man knew it too, snarling to himself and running away as well after calling back his Onix.

"Nice one," Drago muttered and Billy turned with a grin on his face.

"It was nothing," he pulled out two pokeballs and returned his friends to their homes. "Now let's go before they bring back more help," Billy headed for the tree line and his new friend followed right behind.

"You know," Drago started speaking after they had been jogging through the woods for a few minutes. "You said we were going to Fallarbor right?"

Billy looked at the blonde boy and decided they could take a little break, he forgot to get supplies from the pokemart anyway and decided while they were moving that they would camp the night and he would go get food and potions in the morning from the city. _I__'__m sure they won__'__t __**all **__be looking for me,_ he tried to give himself the courage to walk straight into the enemy city in the morning.

Drago continued, "Well, we have two problems then." He leaned back against the tree and sighed, "You told me right in front of those two goons, now every Solar from here to Fallarbor is going to be on the lookout for two kids matching our descriptions.

"You were going to go with them!" the black haired boy said exasperated.

"Yeah well you could've just taken them down then told me," Billy opened his mouth to retort again but Drago continued fast to shut him up, "Whatever, but there's a second thing." He looked the boy in the eyes, "What do you know about Fallarbor?"

"I know it's not controlled by the Solar or Nimbus regimes. It's like Littleroot," the blonde child laughed straight in Billy's face and fake wiped a tear from his cheek.

"So nothing, you know nothing about Fallarbor," he said sarcastically. Drago nodded his head and frowned, "While Littleroot is a place far away from danger and the war, Fallarbor is the exact opposite. Neither side owns the city because nobody dares try to take it over."

"Explain," Billy said taking a seat and pulling out a canteen. He allowed Pidgeotto out of its ball to fly around for a little and then listened.

The kid sighed and sat down in front of Billy, "Alright, so if there was a place where you were going to avoid Solar or Nimbus soldiers, you would want to get as far away from Fallarbor as possible. For one thing, the Don of the town is infamous throughout not only the region but the whole world, he used to run a criminal organization and many consider his ownership of the city illegal though no one will do anything about it. He runs trade between Solar, Nimbus, and his own city, the only city that can trade with the entire region."

"Don't the two sides fight while in the city?" Billy asked.

"If anyone starts a fight, no matter which side, they lose their lives. Their armies get angry about it, but the threat of a cut off of trade to one side is too much, it would switch the balance of the war to whoever could still trade with him and they'd win," Drago stopped and thought, "or at least that's what I hear. There are a lot of strange rumors about what really goes on in Fallarbor, conspiracy theories and such."

The kid from Wyrville remembered what the Champ had told him about hearing things about Fallarbor. "What types of conspiracies?"

Now Drago was enjoying this, putting all types of crazy stories into this child's gullible mind was going to be a hoot. "Before I ran from Rustboro, I used to hang out in this diner. All types of travelers would show up there telling stories about the war in distant lands. One day, this crazy guy shows up, says he's from Yondale, wherever the Hell that is. Anyway," the blonde began whispering so that Billy would have to lean in, increasing the suspense, "he said that his town was burnt to the ground, by Nimbus soldiers. Since we live in a Solar city, everyone felt bad and patted him on the back but this guy wasn't finished with his story."

Billy could feel that he knew what was coming even if he didn't want to hear it. _What are the odds that both sides?_

"Once the crowd had thinned out a little and it was only a few of us listening to him he started in a softer voice. None of us were die hard Solars and he could tell so he wasn't going to censor himself anymore. This guy tells us that the Nimbus soldiers were all wearing the usual black uniforms with red 'N's but he caught one of them after beating him in a battle." Drago laughed and continued, "This is when we realized the guy was a nut, he told us he brought the man out of town and 'interrogated' him to find out why they attacked his town. Get this, he said the man finally cracked and told him that they weren't Nimbus at all, but Solars trying to give the Nimbus a bad image." In a spooky tone like he was telling a ghost story Drago whispered, "The Solars killed a town, a town full of their own supporters, just to get people more riled up against the Nimbus."

Billy was staring the kid straight in the eyes for ten more seconds before Drago started cracking up. "What's so funny?" The dark haired kid asked, tilting his head down letting hair cast a shadow over his eyes.

"That's why it's called a conspiracy, listen, the guy said the man told him he was given 'secret orders' straight from a higher up in Fallarbor." Drago saw that the other kid wasn't smiling and nudged him with his foot, "Dude, it's just a story, cheer up."

"It's not a story," Billy grimaced and looked up at the kid. "And if Solars are doing it too then there are forces in both armies working together."

"Whoa slow down, 'too?' You've heard this story before?" The blonde kid ran his hand through his hair, he thought he'd have completely shocked Billy with his story but the kid already seemed to know about it.

"Petalburg," he whispered and Drago looked at him oddly. "When I left it, I think the battle was over. I couldn't tell, all I knew was that most everyone was knocked out and all the fires were gone." Drago knew nothing about this, it was the first time Billy had mentioned that a battle had occurred there.

"I didn't see any Solars leave town for an assault, I feel like this would've been their base of operations for taking on a city the size of Petalburg." he stated confused.

"That's because they didn't," he looked up and stared the blonde kid right in the eyes, "I beat one of the men dressed as Solars and ripped off his mask. The person under it was a man I recognized, a Nimbus." Billy growled and stood up. "Pidgeotto come here," he called up.

"Wait I don't understand, the guy I was talking to, he wasn't insane?" Drago asked thinking he owed the old man an apology if he ever saw him again. "And where are you going?"

"I need to train," Billy walked into the thicket behind him and Drago looked down at the couple of sticks he'd been piling up while they sat there. _Might as well make a fire,_ he pulled out some matches and looked back in the direction Billy walked off, _if he__'__s this determined, I might never have a chance to beat him again._

**A/n Hope you enjoyed, school started back up today so I might have to slow down on my updates but then again I already have the next three finished XD! Leave a review and tell me what you think and if you have any predictions!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

The sun rose in the east but didn't shine on the kids for a couple of hours after than because they were surrounded by trees. Drago sat up and saw a sliver of smoke from where the fire went out by itself during the night and turned to looked for the other kid.

Instead of lying where he was when Drago went to sleep, there was no one there, _No way. He left? Nah, that kid wouldn__'__t have left me,_ he shook his doubt in Billy out of his mind and looked around for some berries to eat. He couldn't tell which type the ones he found were but they looked good so he tossed them up for his mouth.

The red berries never came back down as a bird swooped over the kid's head and snagged them in midair. "Hey," he called up at the bird that landed on a branch above his head.

He started mumbling curses under his breath but heard a voice call out from behind him, "You should be thanking him," he spun and saw Billy walking towards him with a small white baggie in his hands. The kid tossed it to him and Drago caught it, instantly smelling bacon coming from the bag. "Those berries taste good for pokemon, but two or three of them would have made you have diarrhea all day long.

Drago gulped at the luck and looked up at the Pidgeotto who was staring at him expectantly while he chewed. "Thanks," he nodded up to it and the bird squawked and flew around happily.

"I finished mine on the way here," he said as Drago pulled out a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich from the bag. "The diner lady said she'd give it to me for free if it was for you and that she hopes you have fun on the journey. Also be safe."

"You told her I'm out here!" the other boy grumbled between bites.

"Well, not exactly," he scratched the back of his head and smiled.

**Flashback**

** Billy walked into town and the first thing he saw was a wanted poster pressed on someone****'****s door and the reason why he was wanted. He could swear that at least ten different people looked at him and recognized who he was but instead of calling for help, they just nodded at him and kept walking.**

** The pokemart owner didn****'****t seem to know who he was but when he went to get breakfast after getting supplies, the woman who gave him his food saw the poster right behind him as she did. ****"****You,****" ****she pointed just seeing the face and not reading the sign.**

** Trying to see if it would work, Billy said, ****"****I****'****m just helping Drago.****" ****He pulled back ready for her to shout and he would have to run but his sentence seemed to do the trick. **

** She looked at the sign closer and then smiled, ****"****In that case keep your money.****" ****The lady gave him back his six dollars for the two breakfast sandwiches and smiled. ****"****He used to come in here all the time to listen to all the crazy tales passed around my tables.****"**

** "****We****'****re actually heading away on a journey today,****" ****Billy said seeing as the woman seemed like she was nice.**

** "****Oh, I****'****m sad to here that.****" ****Her face looked depressed but she smiled, ****"****I know I****'****ll see him again some day, tell him to be safe and make sure he has some fun.****"**

** "****I will, thank you,****" ****Billy grabbed the bags and ran for the door. He got back out of the city without running into a single Solar soldier but to make sure he wasn****'****t followed he took a long winding route and trained his Pidgeotto up another level.**

**End Flashback**

The kid reached up and zapped his Pidgeotto back into its ball. _That__'__s three last night and one this morning, started from the bottom now your here._ Pidgeotto was now level twenty six putting it above even Nidorino and he smiled as he clipped the ball back on his waist.

"So, where are we going from here?" the blonde kid asked and Billy looked at him tilting his head to the side.

"I can't tell," Drago looked at him thinking that that was a stupid answer to his question. Billy continued, "How old are you, I thought you were younger than me at first, but then I thought maybe you were a couple years older, but then I saw you sucking your thumb while you slept so…"

"I did not!" Drago shouted and punched his new friend on the shoulder.

"No but really?" the black haired kid waited for a response as he rubbed his bruised shoulder.

He was still angry about the sucking thumb quip but he replied, "I turn thirteen in a week. How about you?"

"I'm twelve too, but your older than me," Drago grinned and the younger boy kept talking, "even though I could crush your team in an instant." He said really fast then coughed and looked up in the sky like he saw something.

"I demand a rematch," Drago stated and Billy looked at him oddly. "I don't mean today or anything, but once we've trained up our teams a lot more, then you have to promise to fight me again to see who's the best."

He didn't ask it as a question but Billy still felt the need to respond and reached out with his right hand. Drago did the same and they grabbed each others' forearms and Billy said, "Agreed."

"Now where are we going?" the blonde got back to his original question and Billy reached into his bag, pulling out a map of the region.

He traced a line straight up and then a little to the right on the map, "Fallarbor is here, in the northeast of Rustboro. We'll have to travel through Meteor Falls to get to the other side."

"Alright, let's go," Drago got his pack on and started walking into the trees.

"Uh, North is that way," Billy pointed and the blonde boy felt his cheeks turn red.

"Yeah, I knew that," the other boy started laughing causing Drago to blush more but then he wound up laughing with them as the walked. They gave the city a wide berth and Billy allowed his Croconaw out of its ball.

After another hour of walking, Drago stopped and turned around seeing that the other boy was trailing behind again, staring into the tree line. "If you keep stopping every time you see a damn Wurmple, were going to be marching all day."

"Sorry," the boy and his water pokemon rushed forwards and caught up with Drago.

"Don't be, we're at the clearing. Be on the lookout, there might be some people around here, we're just north of the city." Billy looked back and saw some towering skyscrapers back behind them. He was disappointed he never got to go inside any of them while he was there.

The two of them started walking down the path and passed another trainer who seemed to be in an angry rush back to Rustboro. "Stupid wall, grumble," Drago turned around and watched the guy walk away mumbling to himself.

"What is it?" Billy asked as the path had some steps and they walked up to another tier of the ground.

"Nothing," the older boy said and they kept moving, going up another flight of stairs to a much higher portion of the trail. There were mountains in front of them and they were getting closer going up a small bit at a time before they could hit the base of the closest one.

They saw another elevated area in front of them that looked like it was the last one before the mountain actually started and walked straight to climb up to it. "Crap," Drago commented as they saw the stairs in front of them. It looked like at one time there might've been a staircase to get up, but a solid wall made of rocks and cement was in their path. On both sides was a steep cliff at least thirty feet high. "There must be another staircase around here," he started going off to the right and Billy walked to the left.

After a few minutes, Drago didn't see anything and went to see if his friend did. The boy walked over then started running as he saw Billy standing still, "Did you find a way up?"

"I don't know," he muttered and just kept staring. Drago walked over to the edge of the cliff he was staring off of and saw a beach down below. There was another beach a little ways across the water that looked like it led up to the mountain.

"How are we going to get there, it's too far to swim," the two boys turned and found a path leading down to the beach. The walked down the stairs and saw a few fishermen but ignored them and walked straight up to the water across from the other beach.

"I know," _Thanks Brendan,_ Croconaw walked up next to him and he asked his pokemon, "Can you carry us across the water to that beach over there?" The pokemon looked across the water and nodded.

"Croc," it said and jumped into the water. The way it said its name sounded like he was saying, 'too easy,' and the boys smiled and walked into the water, each of them sitting on Croconaw's back. There was barely enough room for one and it was cramped up there.

_Surprised he doesn__'__t even seem to notice our weight,_ Drago grabbed onto something as the pokemon started shooting forwards in the water. A huge wake appeared on both sides of the pokemon going either direction.

Billy watched a wave slam into the cliff side on the right of his Croconaw and it broke a piece of rock wall off. _Wow, you__'__re getting really strong,_ he was holding on for dear life but gave his friend a pat on the head. Croconaw took this as a sign to go faster and closed the distance remaining before the beach quickly. Right as they hit the shore, Croconaw stopped short and both kids flew over his head and face first into the sand making drag marks on the beach.

"Croconaw, croconaw," it laughed rolling around as the boys got up allowing piles of sand to pour out of their mouths and ears.

"I'm gonna," Drago raised a hand but Billy beat him to it and stepped towards his pokemon.

"That wasn't funny Croconaw, we could've gotten really hurt," he wiped some sand off his cheek and looked down at his hand seeing some red on it. _Crap, got a scratch._

The blue and yellow pokemon didn't like getting scolded by his master but when he saw the blue appearing on Billy's face it looked down at the sand in sorrow and walked closer to the kid. Drago stood there speechless as Croconaw reached up and wiped some of the blood from Billy's face.

The twelve year old met gazes with his friend and understood how sorry he was for hurting him. "It's okay, really," he assured and smiled, "just don't do it again."

"Croc," it nodded its head and took very serious strides as it moved to the front of the group and started walking up the stairs that led from the beach up to the land high above them.

The three of them continued walking for a little before seeing the road ahead of them that was cut off by the broken staircase. "Look," Drago pointed and Billy saw another staircase but this one led up to the base of the mountain, there was no more grass where they were going.

They hiked up the steps, which were more like indents into the rock wall that were getting harder and harder to move up. The next level was somewhat flat but was definitely still increasing in elevation as they got closer to the steep part of Mount Chimney. Billy asked, "What are we going to do once we can't go up anymore on our own?"

"We'll go around," the blonde replied. The next staircase was even more broken up than the one before it. Drago slipped as the rock beneath him slipped out of its hold and tumbled back down the stairs, but Billy reached back and caught the blonde boy with one hand while holding onto Croconaw with the other. The water pokemon dug its feet into cracks in the ground and pulled his master and their friend back up.

"Thanks," the boy nodded and they continued up the stairs.

As Billy got to the top he froze and stated, "I don't think we need to go around."

"What are you," Drago pulled himself up the last step and gawked at the giant hole in the mountain. It didn't look too dark inside the cave that they would need Flash to navigate, "Oh." _Why not?_ "Let's go," he walked ahead of the other two who were just standing still.

Billy and Croconaw looked at each other and then followed behind Drago, "Are you sure this even comes out on the other side of the mountain? It might just be faster," Drago cut him off.

"Nope, this is the quickest way, they wouldn't have made the entrance on this side if they didn't have an exit on the other. Maybe if this was just a tourist spot but this mountain is right in the middle of a major route," Billy was convinced and as he looked around the cave he was glad they chose this way. A towering waterfall fell into an underground lake to his right and it was all so beautiful.

"Whoa," Billy commented and the other two were feeling similarly however Croconaw was looking at something else. The blue and yellow pokemon started growling and the two boys looked up before catching their breath in their throats. "Z-z-z-zubats," Billy stuttered and almost lost his balance.

There were hundreds of them sleeping on the ceiling. Some were flying around the air, and then Billy noticed something else. This time it wasn't a Zubat but it was in the way right in front of him. He looked straight at it and it was shaped like a crescent moon.

"Stop," Drago grabbed Billy's arm and stopped him from getting any closer to the object. Just as the boy was going to ask why, a large black circle appeared on it and he realized the moon was alive.

The center of the eye was red with a small black pupil and the kid pulled out his pokedex, "Lunatone." He saw it was level twenty and looked down at his Croconaw, "You ready for a fight bro?" Croconaw chomped its teeth and glared at the moon.

_Not again, _Drago thought and then turned to see another Lunatone off in the distance. _Actually I can__'__t let him keep training while I sit around, I need to train up my pokemon too._ He let loose his Plusle and ran towards the moon-shaped pokemon.

Billy started off by having his pokemon leer at the other but then Lunatone used harden and increased its defense more than the kid was able to lower it. "Alright, use bite," the pokemon before them suddenly closed its eyes and when it opened them they were hazy and Croconaw got caught in the stare dropping to the ground and trying to shake off the weird feeling it had.

The twelve year old looked down at his pokedex and saw his friend was slightly damaged and was confused. "Damn, try to fight it and use water gun Croconaw!" The pokemon was able to shake off its confusion for a second and shoot a stream of water but the moon hovered in the air and moved out of the way.

Circles started coming out of the moon-shaped pokemon's eyes and hit Croconaw's. The blue and yellow one suddenly found it very hard to keep his eyes open and fell face first on the ground. Billy thought his friend was K. but looking at the red device in his hands he saw that Croconaw had fallen asleep mid-fight.

"What are you doing?" he called out but his friend was snoring instead of waking up.

Drago was already finished with his fight and laughed as he walked over with Minun. "It used hypnosis, he's not going to wake up that easily."

"Rgh," Billy growled and started yelling moves at his water pokemon but Croconaw just laid there as Lunatone picked up a pile of rocks from the floor and chucked them through the air where they slammed into Croconaw. "Get up!" a rock rolled off of the blue pokemon's head and it still had its eyes closed. "How do you sleep through that?!"

Drago was laughing like crazy rolling on the ground but the next group of rocks thrown missed Croconaw and a few of them hit him knocking him backwards. "Minun!" his friend stepped forwards and squeaked angrily but Drago called to him.

"Don't interfere with their fight, I'm fine," he stood back up and wiped some dirt off his clothes. Now he was hoping that Lunatone got what was coming to it soon.

Finally, Croconaw was stumbling to its feet, confused at why it fell asleep in the first place and angry that during that time he managed to get so hurt. "Use surf Croconaw," Billy called out finally getting the chance to use an attack on the Lunatone.

More rocks were lifted into the air and hit Croconaw but the water pokemon was lifting up a wave and ignored the rocks hitting it as it brought the wave down on the moon pokemon. _Did we win?_ He watched the Lunatone shake itself off and float back into the air, looking into Croconaw's eyes to use confusion again.

The blue and yellow pokemon clenched its eyes shut and the attack missed, "Now use water gun," Billy saw the moon pokemon was in the red and a stream of water shot out and finished it. Croconaw's experience went up a lot and he got to the next level, but he was still in the red. "Great job, come back for now and take a break," he recalled the pet and him and Drago started walking but Billy froze.

"Hey, why are you stopping?" Drago asked and Minun turned around as well.

"Didn't you call out Plusle before?" he asked and both pokemon and master looked to each other and whistled. "You did," he stated, "what happened?"

"It was nothing," the blonde boy tried to dodge the question.

"No it wasn't is he fainted?" Billy asked.

"Actually Plusle is a girl," the kid saw the younger one's waiting stare and threw his arms up, "yes, yes she is. Happy?"

"No, I'm not," he reached into his bag and pulled out a weird looking potion. "Here, use this to bring him, I mean her back to half health."

"Nice a revive," Drago stopped himself from grabbing it, "I don't need your help."

"Yeah but I could use yours," Billy countered. "We're pretty early in our trip, I don't want our combined power to be any lower than it is if we run into any real trouble. So take this," he tossed it to Drago who caught it instead of letting it drop.

The boy nodded after a few seconds thinking that Billy did have a point and got to healing his pokemon. He left out both Plusle and Minun but they were able to avoid getting in any more battles before they reached an obstacle. Billy reached down and felt the ground in front of him up on some sort of shelf. It was the smallest of all the increases in height and he saw behind it that they'd have to do some more climbing, all on a very slippery surface.

"It's like this path is supposed to be impossible to climb," Drago commented as he tried to pull himself up and lost his grip, falling on his butt.

After trying, (and failing) many more times, Billy fell backwards and scratched his chin. Drago continued trying to climb, now all three of his pokemon were out and trying to get up as well, they had made it as far as the second increment but then slid back down and the wall in their path seemed uncrossable. "Got it," Billy stated slapping his right fist into his other open palm.

"Really?" Drago asked on all fours. He was trying not to slide back down the slope and off the ledge back to the first elevation but he was failing and flopped on his stomach before sliding off. "Because I sure don't," he got off his face and watched as Billy removed two of his pokeballs from his belt.

"Pidgeotto, Croconaw, come out," he tossed the balls up and his pokemon appeared. Croconaw still seemed a little out of it and Billy decided it was time to use a potion and restored his friend to almost full health. _I__'__m going to start needing stronger medicine if they keep increasing like this._

He filled his friends in on the plan and Drago grinned, _So he can do some things._ The boy smiled and watched as Croconaw allowed itself to be lifted by the bird's talons. His friend commanded the blue one to use water gun and it splashed water all over the slippery liquid on the level above them.

"Now, Pidgeotto use wing attack," the bird pokemon swung its wings down at the water below them and it started getting pushed to the side and making a thin, dry path right in front of the boys that led to the next level. "Do it again Croconaw," they repeated the pattern where the water would mix with the natural cave fluid and Pidgeotto would spread them both to the side allowing the boys to climb up to the next levels.

"Only a few left," Billy stated after climbing up another ledge and seeing three more cliffs he'd have to do pull ups to get on top of. The other boy was fairing much better than he was and the black haired boy was panting already.

"Come on," Drago said pushing ahead of Billy, "It's just a few pull ups. Maybe you should train yourself a little too instead of just focusing on your pokemon's training." Although Billy felt like retorting to the blonde, he also felt like maybe he was right. _Whoa,_ he watched as the boy who moved in front of him stepped off the dry path, it was hard to see where the dry was and where the wet began and Drago began slipping.

Pikachu jumped up and kicked its master back onto the right path stopping him from sliding all the way back down the cliffs. "Pika!" the mouse pokemon squealed as it started sliding and fell off the previous ledge.

"Pikachu return," Drag called out and a red light emitted from the pokeball he grabbed, returning the yellow mouse back to its home. He looked down at the other two pokemon walking next to him and asked, "You guys want to go back in too?" Plusle and Minun shook their heads no and they continued.

Before long they made it up the last ledge and both boys had their hands on their knees, panting like crazy. "Great, job, guys," Billy said between breaths and recalled his also panting pokemon.

Plusle and Minun were the only ones not really winded by the experience and were looking expectantly at the kids, waiting for them to continue going. Before they could even relax, a noise was heard different from the bats on the ceiling and the usual cave noises. _Voices? People!_

**A/n Sorry for ending it there but I realized this chapter was getting a little long so I went back and cut it off here, I****'****ve been writing it non-stop, just finding good intervals of when to update it so I picked here because there was nowhere to really stop for the next couple pages. I love to hear feedback from you guys and I hope you enjoyed this last chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: *(Caution graphic content below)

"Quickly, get down," Billy whispered to the others and ducked behind a nearby rock.

Drago and his pokemon ran over and ducked down too, poking their heads out feeling safe in the semi-darkness. The voices got closer and finally they saw outlines of people coming close.

Three men in red were sprinting towards them and the blonde boy moved like he was going to make a break for it but Billy grabbed his arm and held him down. They looked at each other and Billy put a finger to his lips, "Shh," they watched as the men were coming closer but a flash of gold appeared behind one of them and a lightning bolt flew through his chest and kept going illuminating the entire cave as it soared and slammed into another wall.

The Zubats on the roof went nuts and started flying around screeching all over the place. "Hue!" one of the remaining two people, who turned out to be women in red, spun seeing the man on her right get zapped.

"Don't stop!" the other shouted and kept running towards the kids. When the cave lit up she could have sworn she saw two heads duck down behind a rock but she ignored it as a scared hallucination and kept running. She looked back to see if her other comrade was following but let out a small gasp when she saw her friend spiraling towards her.

Billy recognized a Stantler, a huge deer pokemon with large antlers. It slammed straight into the woman kneeling over the dead man's body and sent her flying straight into the other woman who was running away, knocking her down.

The one who was knocked down opened her eyes to see her friend's bloodied face right above her own. "Ollie," she shook her friend off her and shouted.

"Stantler, use take down again," a voice shouted out and the deer ran forwards with its head out.

"I'm sorry Ollie," the woman in red said to her friend who she assumed was dead already and lifted her up in front of the Stantler, making her take the brunt of the attack.

_This is horrible,_ Billy couldn't watch anymore but he also couldn't look away.

"Please, you already killed my pokemon and my friends, just let me go," the woman fell to her knees in front of the Stantler.

Another figure was running towards them from the same direction she had come from and Billy and Drago finally got to see who was chasing the Solar soldiers. Drago gasped as he saw that the ones chasing them were none other than other Solars, all wearing red but these were all wearing masks. Billy wasn't even fazed and was half-expecting it to be betrayal, but this was the first time the blonde boy had seen anything like it. There were six of them in all and one pat his Magnemite on one of its two heads as he walked up so the group was in a semicircle around the quivering woman. "I'm sorry Trish, we can't do that."

The woman who had her head bent and was crying stopped instantly and looked up slowly as one of the figures pulled their mask off and shook her head, letting long blonde hair flow out behind her. "Jess," she said shocked, "but why?" the others all pulled their masks off one by one and Drago looked in disgust as looks of recognition spread across the woman's face.

The last person took their mask off slowly and Trish seemed devastated by this one, "Tommy," even the man behind the mask seemed hurt this time and wouldn't make eye contact with the woman on her knees.

"You asked why," the blonde chick asked and cackled up in the air. "What do you think ever happened to all the criminals once this war started? You think a huge war takes most of the strong civilians out of their towns yet no criminals start ruling? Ha!" Trish looked so sad and confused but the boys knew they couldn't do anything, they had no idea how powerful these fighters before them were. "So where do you think the most powerful groups went? Why they would disappear right as the war started? You ever wonder that?"

"That's enough Jess," the man called Tommy stated and the short bald man next to him elbowed him in the gut real hard.

"Don't talk back, unless," he looked at the girl on the floor, "don't tell me you actually felt something for the pathetic girl?" they all looked to Tommy for an answer.

He scoffed and smirked, "Of course not," however he still wouldn't make eye contact with her.

"So what, you're a part of team Magma that hid itself in the Solars? Great for you," Trish taunted. She knew it was the end but there was no need to give them the satisfaction of her amazement.

"Actually team Aqua, at least I was," she pointed at another member of the group, "he was Magma, but you see we're all working together now. All I have to do is put on a black uniform and a red wig and I can walk into any Nimbus city in the region. They'll salute me as one of Maxie's personal guard and soldiers." She pointed down at her own shirt and smirked at the girl before her, "Then again I can put on this red uniform and you'll all call me Commander and listen to whatever orders I tell you, straight from my true boss, Archie."

"Archie's a good man, he wouldn't…" Trish was shouting but Jess kicked her in the face and she fell backwards.

"We're on a tight schedule," one of the women next to her reminded Jess and she nodded.

"You're right," the blonde said while watching Trish who was punching her fists on the ground over and over, she couldn't believe they were all being fooled, and that she couldn't do anything about it. Jess continued, "Stantler," Trish turned around as the deer moved up. Drago ducked back down behind the rock, he didn't want to watch this. Billy kept staring ahead though, he needed it in his mind, he needed it to fuel his rage. "Use stomp," the deer stepped forwards and reared up before slamming one of its hooves right on Trish's temple. The blonde woman got some blood on her face and looked around, "Masks back on, let's head out. We've wasted enough time as it is."

The group put on their masks and jumped down onto the slippery ledge, sliding down with their legs spread before jumping down to the next one and continuing to slide.

After a few minutes had passed, Billy nodded to his friend and they stepped out of the cover and walked forwards so they were standing right above Trish's body. "You should've looked away man," Drago said taking one glance and knowing that Billy had watched what made the girl look so mangled.

"I needed to see," the blonde boy looked at Billy who started walking the direction the Solars had come from. "I will never," he stated loudly as he marched away. Plusle and Minun grabbed hold of each other and trembled at the sound of Billy's terrifyingly angry voice. "Ever!" the boy started jogging and Drago started moving as to not lose sight of his friend, calling back his pokemon as he did. "Sit back and watch as another innocent person gets killed by this war."

"What are you going to do?" Drago asked as he caught up to the boy and they sprinted up a flight of rock steps together. At the top of the stairs a bridge went over the top of a river that led up to the waterfall Billy had seen on his way into the cave.

"I'm going to train," he growled and at the other side of the river they saw light flowing in from an exit close by. "There's no point in getting to Fallarbor right now when we can't even step up to save a single person."

"Where will we train before we reach Fallarbor?" the other boy asked as they charged straight at the cave's exit. His question was answered as soon as they were outside. Billy even stopped his sprint of rage and took in the scenery with surprise.

Compared to the dark dank cave, it was so beautiful outside, the air was so crisp and fresh. They walked up some steps away from the cave mouth to get a better view of that side of the mountain and stared amazed at what they saw. Between two smaller mountains that continued the range, was a lush green valley with a house in it they could see from there.

All around the valley, pokemon were flying and they could see pokemon battles going on down below. Not life or death battles, but people fighting each other for fun and for training. Billy looked farther in the distance since the mountainside gave him a good view. He got as far as the shore of what must've be a lake and the start of a very wide bridge, but like the one before Rustboro, it was covered in fog and he couldn't see the other side.

"This is amazing," Drago said astonished by the landscape around him.

_Yeah it is,_ Billy smiled and watched a few small blue pokemon with wings that looked like clouds fly around in circles getting closer to him as they did. His smile faded fast and he turned around, looking on the trail down the mountain into the valley for something. _There,_ he rushed away from Drago who turned and watched his friend run to a burly man with a large backpack on. "Fight me," Billy demanded and the man started laughing at the young boy's determined look.

"Of course I'll battle you young lad," the man laughed again heartily and Billy's demeanor changed to match the man he was versing. _Don__'__t forget about them, but don__'__t let them control you. Mom wouldn__'__t have wanted me to be sad,_ he chinned up and tossed a pokeball into the air.

"Nidorino, show him what you're made of." The purple pokemon shook itself and turned to look at Billy with a questioning look. "What?" his friend snorted and looked back at the hiker who tossed a ball up in the air. "Hey," Billy called to his friend and Nidorino turned around again, "I'm sorry I haven't called you out in a while. This is your time to shine okay?"

"Nido," it agreed and spun back to face the red light that was forming into a pokemon.

_Amazing, the kid knew exactly why his pokemon was upset with him._ The hiker gulped and shouted, "Nosepass, rock tomb."

The other twelve year old boy came over to watch the fight but saw a guy juggling fire sticks by himself down another level of the mountain path and ran over. "Hey, you a trainer?" the man questioned excitedly as Drago ran over.

"Yeah, you ready to battle?" the blonde boy reached for his pokeballs.

"I always am," the man dropped his fire sticks on the rocks below and pulled out a pokeball, "Numel go!"

"Go Pikachu," both balls flew up in the air and released their pokemon at the same time, then they bounced back to their trainers…

For the remainder of the day, Billy and Drago fought hard against many trainers as they made their way down into the valley. The people in the area had pokemon that were a slightly lower level than theirs were, but that didn't mean they weren't strong. Most of those trainers were also more experienced.

Billy had used both of his remaining revives within the first couple hours of training and when the two of them finally reached the bottom of the mountain the battles were getting tiresome. Drago saw a girl kicking a target she had painted on a tree right at the bottom of the mountain path and ran up to her but right before he could open his mouth the other twelve year old stepped in front of him and said, "Hi, want to battle?"

"Sure," the girl responded and the blonde boy fumed. _That was totally my battle, he knows he stole it too. Rrr,_ he was down to his Pikachu since both Plusle and Minun had fainted earlier on. "You know the whole valley is talking about you guys?" she said as she walked to a small distance away from Billy and wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Huh?" the two kids responded at once.

She laughed at their synchronism, "A hiker came down the mountain a few hours ago and said there were two strong young trainers around your age challenging everyone on the path and never losing. I'm guessing that's you guys right?"

Drago opened his mouth but Billy started talking first, "Yep, I'm Billy, what's your name?"

"And I'm Drago," the blonde boy growled at Billy for not introducing him as well.

"Haha, well my names Lucy. Let's fight," she tossed a pokeball up in the air and yelled, "Hitmonlee come out!"

_Nidorino is almost down after that last fight and I don__'__t think Pidgeotto can move an inch after that battle with that Manectric. Here goes,_ "Croconaw, your up again," he held up the pokeball and his blue and yellow pokemon emerged, panting already and smirking, ready for another thrilling battle.

He pulled out his pokedex that he had in his back pocket instead of his bag, because he had it out so often there was no need to put it away. _Both level twenty eight, good. Croconaw__'__s down to half health already, probably should__'__ve used that potion._ Besides being out of revives, he had used up all his paralyze heals and awakenings, he only had one antidote and one potion left as well.

She looked to be a few years older than he and Drago were. Drago, who was now leaning up against the tree Lucy was using for kicking practice, was checking out the girl. Her hair wasn't too long but it wasn't considered short and it was a natural red, mixed with brown. She only had one pokeball and it was the one she released Hitmonlee with.

"You ready?" Billy called out but the girl frowned and returned her pokemon.

"No," she scowled at him. "I mean yes, but you're not," she ran a hand through her hair and walked over to the boy, grabbing him by the hand. Immediately the blonde haired boy felt jealous and ran over to see what she was talking about. "Your pokemon looks one step from falling down, come with me."

"Where are we going?" Drago asked her as he walked up to the other side of Lucy. She let go of Billy's forearm and the kid reached for it with his other hand rubbing it softly, _her grip is so strong!_ Already the skin was turning red where her hand was wrapped around.

"Lanette's," she responded and Lucy walked around another tree so the boys could see what was behind it.

"That's the house we saw from the entrance to the mountain," Drago stated recognizing it.

"In it lives a very nice woman who's renowned throughout the region as being a highly intelligent scientist." Lucy bowed her head as she walked towards the door, "Before the war everyone used a system that was somewhat like a bank, it held the excess pokemon people had and could transport them to any city in an instant."

"Whoa," Billy said imagining the possibilities.

"It truly was amazing I've been told," she frowned, "I became a trainer after the war started so I never got to use the PC's."

Before the boys could ask why, the door opened in front of them and a middle-aged woman with long black curls stepped out. "Because people misused my system," she looked at the two boys she didn't recognize and smiled, "So you must be the ones everyone's been talking about." The twelve year olds looked at each other surprised that word was actually spreading.

When they got inside they understood what she was talking about though, "Heyyy!" a hiker threw his arms up in the air and greeted the boys he had a double battle with earlier with one of his buddies. "Look who it is guys," the two kids turned to their right and dropped their lower lips.

"Hey."

"What's up?"

"So someone finally beat you guys?" a bug catcher from halfway down the trail asked.

Lucy was the one who responded, "No, I thought they just needed some rest before I gave this one a real challenge," she nudged Billy with her elbow and he grabbed his left arm feeling a bruise already forming.

"Lucy you really have to watch yourself," Lanette scolded the girl after watching Billy's reaction. "You're getting too strong to go around hitting little boys like that."

Drago started snickering and Billy spoke up, "I'm not some little kid."

"Oh sorry," Lanette apologized with a smile and some of the others in the room laughed and after a few seconds Billy joined in. "So I want you boys to know now," she started and both kids turned to make eye contact with her, "no matter how long you stay in this valley, my home is your home."

"Yeah!" all the various trainers sitting up on cots and bunk beds cheered in unison. "Lanette's the greatest," one of them called out and only received words of agreement from the others.

The fighter girl who brought them to the house started talking to the new kids as well, "Lanette creates her own medicine which is even more effective than revives on the market right now. The difference is that hers takes a couple of hours so you have to wait. When your pokemon need to get healed just come back here and hand them off. While they're healing you can rest up and then when you awake up they'll be all better and you can get back to your training."

As Lucy finished Lanette added in her own sentiment, "That starts right now since you boys and your pokemon definitely need a nice long rest. From the looks of your clothes, you've been on a long journey, so find yourselves some empty beds and lie down. When you wake up your pokemon will be as good as new."

"That sounds great," _this is perfect, before we head into Fallabor I__'__ll catch some more pokemon and maybe evolve the others._ Billy smiled warmly at the woman and Drago nodded politely to her before turning around and running into the room to grab the nicest open bed. "Hey not fair, you got a head start," Billy complained following him, the adults in the room smiled, glad to see the playfulness of some children for a change.

One of the female trainers signaled to Lanette with a nod of her head and Lanette followed the direction the woman nodded to. All she saw was the door shutting and Lucy's back as she walked back out of the door, she sighed, _at least some children can still enjoy themselves._

**A/n Hope you enjoyed****… ****or at least liked it if it was hard to enjoy the grim chapter. Tell me what you thought or if you have a question ;). I****'****ll get up another chapter tomorrow!**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

For close to a week, the two boys spent their days training out in the tall grass, fighting wild pokemon and other trainers. Amazingly, they were both undefeated in the valley, Billy even fought Lucy after Drago and beat her using only his Pidgeotto and Nidorino.

Three days after Drago and Lucy's fight, the boy woke up and yawned, stretching his arms over his head and turning to the right where he thought he would see Billy sleeping. _Odd, he usually wakes up after me,_ the kid looked around the room and it was completely empty. "Hello?" he called out and ran out of bed to the door, _they__'__re gone._ His pokemon weren't in his basket and he panicked, opening up the door and falling backwards as forty or so people shouted 'surprise' at him.

They didn't usually have a lot of reasons to party so when it was someone's birthday, they celebrated with a bang. The kid walked outside after regaining himself and Billy handed him his pokemon, he just wanted the scare to be real and didn't think Drago would be as surprised if he had his pokemon on him.

The blonde boy thought about hitting him but instead smiled and enjoyed the morning party. Not many people gave him presents considering they all just recently met him, however, Lanette had a very special present just for him and his eyes sparkled when he saw it.

The woman pulled out a small yellow stone and the kids looked at it in awe, "What is it?" Billy asked and Drago grabbed it smiling as he did.

"Something I've been looking for, for longer than you know," he looked up at Lanette and smiled wider than she'd seen since he arrived. "Thank you," he released Pikachu from its pokeball and showed him the yellow stone. "You ok with this?" the boy asked and the yellow mouse nodded.

"Pika," it said once and closed its eyes as Drago pressed the thunderstone on top of his pokemon's head. Billy watched amazed as Pikachu began to morph and transform into a taller version of itself. The bright white light made them look away but when they looked back, Pikachu had evolved into Raichu, a taller, more orange version of itself.

The day after Drago's birthday, one of Billy's pokemon evolved as well. He'd been focusing his training mainly on Pidgeotto while using Nidorino also during the double battles. He felt that the bird pokemon wasn't pulling its weight during battles and he wanted to be able to rely on it like he did with the others.

When it reached level thirty six during a battle with another young boy who had some decent ground types, he began getting very excited. The battle ended with him victorious and Pidgeotto began to glow. "Yes!" he shouted excitedly and he and the lad named Rex watched as the white light changed the length of the bird's wings, doubling them at least. When the light faded, the most noticeable difference besides it being as tall as the boys, was its hair. The bird had four extra long orange and yellow feathers flowing on the top of its head.

"Pidgeot!" it yelled tossing its head back. Its voice was definitely lower than before and Billy was more than happy seeing his friend's transformation.

He went and showed off to a bird breeder on the other side of Lanette's house who lived close to the bridge. The woman saw his Pidgeot and started drooling, demanding a battle with him. After he beat her flawlessly, she accepted defeat and smiled, handing the boy a TM for his hard work at training. "It's TM forty," she stated, "teach it to your bird here and it will always attack first. Fastest move I've ever come across but I think your pokemon deserves it more. It's pretty powerful too, called Aerial Ace." Billy thanked her for her generosity and taught Pidgeot the move, it worked fantastically and besides always hitting its mark before the opponent could move, it was often a critical hit.

Once he got Pidgeot up to level thirty eight he decided to evolve one of his other pokemon. He spent the next few days focusing mainly on his Nidorino, only leveling up his Croconaw once during a double battle. Finally he came back to Lanette's house frustrated one night and she asked him what was wrong. He told her what he'd been trying to do and she laughed before shaking her head, "Sorry Billy, that's not going to happen."

"Huh, why not?" he asked, Nidorino was already level thirty five and he thought he must have been real close now.

"Just like Drago's Raichu was, your Nidorino can only be evolved using a stone. You need a moonstone and I'm sorry but I do not own one myself." Billy seemed disappointed but thanked Lanette and allowed her to take his pokemon to heal for the night.

The next day, one week into their stay in the valley, Billy was going to start training his Croconaw. He walked outside and went into the woods, looking for some Mankeys or Aipoms that were abundant in the forest around Lanette's house. Occasionally he'd see a Bellsprout and Weepingbell but after making a quick decision, he just defeated them and gained experience instead of catching them.

He heard a rustling in the bushes and got ready, throwing a pokeball and letting his level twenty nine Croconaw come out to fight. Most of the enemies around there were in the mid-teens or early twenties for their levels and he felt whatever it was that jumped him he could take it.

Looking in the bush he saw a green speckled pokemon with a large flower bud on its back walk out. "Bulbasaur," it grumbled and took a look at the blue and yellow pokemon glaring at it. Billy looked in his pokedex and saw that it was only level eighteen but even as it stared at the superior pokemon, it stomped its feet on the ground and smiled ready for action.

_I like him,_ Billy thought and watched as two green vine whips extended from its sides and flew forwards, smacking his pokemon. "Croconaw use water gun," his friend shot a blast of water that knocked back the green pokemon. He fought it for a few more minutes since the water moves weren't very effective against it. Finally he tried a pokeball and it wiggled on the ground.

_ Did I get it?_ The ball exploded outwards and the pokemon burst out, panting like crazy having fought the urge to become domesticated in the ball. "Bulbasaur," it opened the bud on the top of its back and purple powder came out, landing on top of Croconaw and making him glow purple. _Damn I was down to my last antidote too._

"Hit him again," Billy was nervous as an extra hit could lower Bulbasaur right through the red and unconscious where he wouldn't be able to catch it any longer. Pokemon caught while unconscious would run away the first time they were released from their cages so he had to get it now. The blast of water knocked Bulbasaur back and it rolled into a tree, slumping to the ground as it did.

The twelve year old looked at his pokedex and didn't see a health bar next to the pokemon any longer. "Crap," he said and looked at Croconaw's experience bar. He didn't know what level his friend needed to be to evolve again but he was close to level thirty now and he was waiting for the blue bar to extend but it never did. A faint beeping was heard from his device and got louder. He lifted his head and looked amazed as the Bulbasaur limped up to all fours and growled again at him. There was the smallest bit of red left on its health that the trainer couldn't even see it. _Now,_ he removed another pokeball and threw it at the Bulbasaur and the ball pulled it in, in a flash of bright red light.

The ball wiggled a little and then froze, catching the Bulbasaur for real. "Awesome," he high-fived Croconaw and ran over, picking up the pokeball and putting it on the clip that was sticking out of his pants' waistband. Lanette had gotten them more clothes after heading into town when they were asleep one night, she got him and Drago trainers' gear which they repaid her for when they awoke. She told them they didn't have to, but she had already done so much for them that they didn't want to be any further in her debt.

He decided not to use the antidote and instead rushed back to Lanette's house where he gave her the two pokeballs with Croconaw and Bulbasaur in it. Then instead of resting, he went back out with his last two pokeballs to go tell Drago about it.

Lanette went in the side room where all the pokemon were resting and released the two pokemon onto beds where they stayed. Bulbasaur seemed upset but Croconaw turned to it and started making noises while the other one listened. Lanette saw the new grass type pokemon and then watched the interaction between the two of them. _It__'__s like he__'__s explaining that Billy__'__s a nice trainer so Bulbasaur doesn__'__t need to worry._ The grass pokemon proved her predictions right by calming down and sitting still as the woman administered her medicine.

Croconaw glowed purple and Bulbasaur nodded its head towards it saying, "Bulba."

"Croc, Croconaw," the blue one replied and Lanette laughed at the quick accepted apology from the pokemon. _This kid has a great choice in pokemon._

sc

Lucy and Drago were walking down the path after having a double battle: the two of them verses two hikers up the mountain trail to Meteor Falls. They had won with pretty good teamwork which the two hikers were surprised at. Since Belle, no one had been able to synchronize movements with Lucy during a battle but they did it masterfully.

The two were walking and laughing when they saw Billy running towards them down the path from Lanette's house. "Hey guys," they smiled and waved back at him.

"Evolve your Croconaw yet?" Lucy asked and the younger boy's smile faded to a pout, "I'll take that as a no," the two of them laughed and Billy joined in for a second before telling them the news.

"I just caught a new pokemon, a Bulbasaur," the kid boasted.

"Nice," Drago patted him on the back, "You better train it fast, my Pikachu is already so much higher of a level than last time. When we battle again I'm going to win this time." The girl next to them smiled as well and continued walking down the path.

A couple days ago, Drago told Billy what Lucy had told him, with her consent of course. The younger boy knew about how she lost her pokemon and looked after her sadly, "I wish there was something we could do."

Just then they heard Lucy shout and the two boys started sprinting down the trail. They ran through some bushes in the trail and came out on one of the fields where three of the trainers from Lanette's house were standing in front of them. Lucy was a few feet away and Drago jogged to her side and was going to ask what was wrong when he saw the group of trainers weren't alone.

The trainers had their hands on their pokeballs and were fidgeting while a much larger group stared at them all wearing black. "We know the Solars come through here taking your pokemon, we can't let them get all of them so we're confiscating your pokemon now." The man in front sat on top of an Arcanine and the orange and white beast growled at the trainers in front of it.

"Look a few more," one of the soldiers wearing black pointed and they released their pokemon at the same time. Two Machokes, a Quagsire, and a Wobbufett came out of the pokeballs and ran over to the three children.

"Hey what are you," Billy felt two strong arms grab him and start pulling him over. "Stop," he mumbled trying to reach for his pokeballs but failing.

"This is for your pokemon's own good. They will help us end this war with the evil Solars and we can finally achieve peace in Hoenn." The man on top of the Arcanine stated and stared at the trainers lined up in front of him. The pokemon that brought the kids forwards released them and then stood behind so they were encircled by enemies.

Lucy and Drago sized up the enemy's numbers, figuring out how many and how powerful they were before making any decisions. The three others were glad to have the strongest trainers in the valley with them, even if they were just children, but the group in front of them seemed too powerful. One of the trainers was a girl two years younger than Billy and she reached for her pokeball on her waist.

"Don't," Billy stated in a low voice. The Nimbus leader looked down at one of the new arrivals but couldn't see the boy's eyes, they were shadowed by his black hair. "What do you think you're doing?" he said and angrily snapped his head to the girl on his far left. There were four trainers between him and the girl but he glared at her intensely as she moved her hand away. "This war, nobody even knows why your fighting it anymore. You just fight because the other side has done enough terrible things that you can justify your actions."

"You don't understand anything kid, just give up your pokemon. I'm sorry but it has to be done, with or without your compliance." He nodded his head at one of his underlings and the woman with short white hair flipped forwards in front of the kid to snatch the balls off his waist.

Billy wasn't expecting it and would've lost his pokeballs if not for a foot that came out of nowhere and knocked the woman with white hair backwards into the Arcanine's legs. _Ooh,_ the five other trainers thought wincing. They all knew how much one of the girl's friendly taps on their shoulders or backs could hurt, so a full fledged kick must've broken some bones.

"Sergeant," the boss shouted down at his inferior but the soldier wasn't moving.

"Don't bother," Lucy shook her hair behind her head and tucked it behind her ears. "I put as much strength in that kick as I do when I spar with Hitmonlee. Come out," she grabbed her pokeball and the pokemon emerged from it. Since the other two boys arrived in the valley, she got motivated by their excessive training regiments and tried to keep up with them while continuing her own training. Hitmonlee was now level thirty four and kicked in the air a few times, loosening up after coming out.

"Don't let the others call out their pokemon," the leader shouted and the pokemon behind them wrapped the trainers up in bear hugs, restricting their arms.

"Help," Billy gasped as the Machoke was squeezing the air out of his lungs. Lucy turned to him and then back towards the other trainers who were getting attacked by weaker looking pokemon. _I don__'__t think I__'__ll be able to take on a Machoke on my own,_ she ran for the Quagsire reaching for the ten year old girl and kicked it in the head knocking it away.

"Hitmonlee, help the others," she shouted behind her and then looked with an open jaw at the sight in front of her. All the Nimbus soldiers froze as well because, the instant Billy called for help, two red lights emitted from his pokeballs.

"Pidgeot," the bird flew to the side and pecked the Machoke holding Drago right in the face so it had to let go to try and swat the bird away. Nidorino appeared and helped its own master on the other hand, it used its horn attack right on Machoke's legs and the tall four armed monster fell to its knees in pain.

"Everyone attack, we'll take their pokemon after their knocked out. Don't harm the trainers though," Lucy was surprised that they cared. The men in the red masks that attacked sure didn't.

The six of them vastly underestimated how many pokemon the twenty or so soldiers in front of them had. Red lights lit up the sky and pokemon appeared everywhere. The two boys released their pokemon and then shouted at the other three who were standing still, frozen in shock by the sheer number of enemies to do the same.

One of them, a hiker named Ralf, let out his Geodude and Graveler. The lady on his right, whom he was dating, Francis, removed hers as well, "Go Flaffy." A pink sheep on two legs appeared next to the rock type pokemon and they stared in fear at the rapidly increasing army in front of them.

"Butterfry, y-you help too," the little girl was the last to send out her bug pokemon.

Billy looked around and they were completely encircled by enemies. They had a total of ten pokemon between them and there were at least sixty or seventy pokemon around them, along with twenty plus soldiers. "Do not be afraid," Billy said in a calm voice. He was actually terrified but he didn't want the others to know it, "The odds seem to be against us, but we need to battle smart and together. If you see a friend getting overwhelmed help them out," the Nimbus' pokemon began charging inwards to their circle. "Now fight!" He shouted and the others yelled out commands fast.

"Thunder."

"High jump kick."

"Aerial ace," Billy called out and his Pidgeot swooped down hitting the closest Machoke again in the face but this time it knocked him out, it was super effective and a critical hit, knocking the tall gray pokemon backwards into two Weepingbells behind it.

Drago's Raichu used thunder and a huge bolt of lightning came out of the sky on top of an enemy's Wailmer, one hit KO-ing it. Lucy's Hitmonlee missed its kick but she knew it was worth the risk because the enemies were so close together that after it missed the Onix it was aiming for, it slammed into a Beedrill flying behind the giant rock snake.

The leader of the Nimbus group watched with respect for the trainers as they tried their best to hold onto their beloved pokemon. Many had before, and he felt bad every time, but the Solars had to be stopped. They'd killed too many people for him not to be willing to go this far to stop them.

"Captain Ivo," he turned his head to the right where a beautiful blonde woman called to him. "We're losing pokemon fast, you may need to step in with this one."

"There're only six of them, how much trouble could..." he stopped as the towering Onix on his left was hit by a wing attack from the Pidgeot and toppled on many other allies around it. He sighed, "Alright," he pat the beast he was sitting on on the head and whispered, "Extreme speed." The fire pokemon ran insanely fast towards the Graveler that was attempting to hold off two Houndours at the same time and it trampled the pokemon, knocking it out immediately.

"Sleep powder," the girl called out and blue dust emitted from Butterfry's wings hitting the two pokemon in front of her. Just then, a huge pokemon with a man on its back charged in front of her and hit Ralf's Graveler, she shrieked. The beast turned towards the little girl right as it was breathing in and got a large whiff of the still floating sleep powder.

Arcanine yawned and bent its knees, falling to the ground. _Just my luck,_ the Captain thought and looked at the ten year old who was able to send his pokemon to sleep.

"Minun!" Drago yelled as he watched the small blue electric pokemon get tossed across the battlefield by a Machamp. This pokemon was bigger than the Machoke he previously took down and had an extra two arms. "Need some help here," he turned to his left and saw Francis hunched over her unconscious Flaffy, trying to wake it up to no avail.

_Crap,_ "Pikachu and Plusle, use quick attack," his other two pokemon bounced away from the battles they were in and jumped in midair, crossing from opposite sides of Machamp's body and swiping it in the air. "Nice," he said as they landed on either side of him and started battling the other's opponent.

"Rapidash, go," the man who was riding the Arcanine said quietly as he threw his pokeball up in the air. The flaming horse emerged and ran towards the scared girl, "Use fire spin." The horse flared its flames and a circle of flames surrounded the Butterfry, burning it and bringing it to the ground.

The twelve year old with dark black hair watched his Nidorino take down a Nidorina and it jumped back to him. Right then, Pidgeot fell out of the air and landed on the grass in front of him. It tried to get up but fell back and spread its wings out. "Come back Pidgeot," he shouted and a red light pulled his friend back into the pokeball.

He could see the two enemy leader's pokemon as the Rapidash took out Sally's Butterfry. They were down to his Nidorino, Drago's Raichu, and Lucy's Hitmonlee which was able to dodge most attacks thrown at it so far. The other three trainers recalled their pokemon and were now vulnerable so they stepped closer to the three who still had theirs.

Although the enemy's numbers had been greatly thinned, they were still surrounded on all sides and couldn't run away. Billy was hoping the battle would draw the attention of some more of their friends but all the other trainers seemed to be off on other parts of the valley or on the mountain.

The Captain's Arcanine woke up and shook itself like a wet dog before walking towards his master and allowing the man to climb back on top. "You've put up a good fight, but you need to accept defeat and save your pokemon any more pain."

sc

"Ah, ah, ah, ah," the burly man threw off his backpack to run without the extra hiking weight. He left his friend back up at the tree-line but on their way back from Meteor Falls they heard some loud noises on the field near them. Drago and Lucy had just defeated both of their teams so they couldn't do anything to help when they went up to the clearing and saw a ginormous battle going on with a bunch of Nimbus soldiers and their friends.

"Need, to, tell, Lanette," the man felt dizzy and knew he should have done some more exercise besides hiking but now wasn't the time to make excuses and saw the house. "Almost, there," he was breathing so hard and couldn't remember a time in the past ten years he'd run so fast and so far.

His friends were outnumbered, and when they saw what the Arcanine and Rapidash could do, they knew they were outclassed as well. He threw open the door and it slammed into the wall as he ran inside. Some other trainers were there while their pokemon healed and Lanette opened the door to the healing room to see what the ruckus was about.

The hiker was handed a bottle of water from a woman sitting on the bed closest to him and he downed it in a few seconds. He dropped the bottle on the floor and shouted, "Nimbus in the valley. Ralf and Francis, along with the kids are all there. They're trying to take their pokemon."

Some of the others in the room sighed and felt bad for the kids. It was bad luck that they were out there when the group came in and there wasn't anything they could do about it. "That's terrible, is Lucy there?"

The man nodded looking around wondering why everyone was still sitting. "Yeah she is."

"She's going to be devastated, she only had one left," another man said from his bunk.

"You don't get it," he was still panting but he took a deep breath and shouted, "They're fighting the Nimbus right now!" Everyone in the room gasped and looked at him in shock.

"What?!" Lanette shouted from the door to the healing room.

"Ralf, Francis, Lucy and Sally, and the new kids, they're all fighting the Nimbus army on the south field as we speak." This time the other trainers got off their beds and started talking loudly but before anything could be done, Croconaw knocked past Lanette and sprinted out the front door, Bulbasaur was following behind it trying to keep up.

"Wait, you're not fully healed yet," Lanette shouted at the Bulbasaur that started healing with almost no health left. Croconaw was healed of its poisoning and was already almost at full health but she still feared the worst for them both.

"Lanette, give me my pokemon," she turned and saw one of the less bulky men wearing all white.

The man was a fire juggler named Rick and she looked at him in shock, "You just came in an hour ago, your pokemon won't even be half healed!" As she said it though, the pokemon were coming out of the healing room, some faster than others and walking up to their trainers. "Let's go guys," he ran out the room with a Charmander and a Numel running with him.

"I'm going too."

"Me too," the room cleared out fast as almost all the trainers ran out after Rick towards the south field. Six of the seven left and only one person who had come in a few minutes earlier didn't because she knew her pokemon were probably still knocked out.

Lanette looked at the hiker who had brought them the news and asked curiously, "Are you okay Tony?" The man's eyes closed and he fell backwards right on the hard wood floor, he passed out from exhaustion.

sc

"I'll give you until the count of three before I command Arcanine to burn you all. Surrender your pokemon before then and we can all avoid this situation." Captain Ivo had a crew cut of brown hair and looked down at the children who still had their pokemon with them. _Those are some strong pokemon, they managed to defeat over half of my subordinates__' __pets. This is a good find,_ "One."

"Now let me tell you something," Drago shouted at the man on top of the lion pokemon. "None of us are giving you our pokemon, they're our friends and aren't meant for killing. You don't get to decide what happens to them."

"Two."

"First it was Hitmontop and Hitmonchan, you will not get Hitmonlee even if it kills me. She struck a fighting pose and her pokemon did the same. The other three trainers behind them were looking for escape routes and finding none.

"Three," the man raised a hand and was about to speak into his pokemon's ear when he heard laughing. He looked around but the sound was coming from right in front of him. Looking down he saw the youngest boy there was chuckling to himself.

"You should have run the moment I got here," Billy said smiling. His Nidorino had leveled up twice during the battle and Pidgeot did once as well. "I'm glad you came though, it was some good training for _my_ pokemon," he said 'my' in such a cocky tone that it surprised the man on top of the Arcanine and his soldiers, some took steps away from the kid without realizing why they were. His smile turned into a deep scowl, "because now I won't forgive you."

"Stop blabbering kid," Ivo shouted and continued, "Arcanine, use flamethrower." The beast opened its mouth and a ball of fire formed in the back of its throat, starting to build up.

At that moment, Croconaw burst through the trees and ran straight into the Pinsir that stood between it and its master. "Go now," Billy turned and shouted at the other three. They saw the hole opened up by Croconaw and sprinted through it, making a break for the trees. "Water gun," he shouted at his pokemon and it shot a blast of water straight past him and into the incoming flamethrower. The water and fire met in midair but instead of pushing back the attack, the water gun was too small to fight the enormous stream of fire and they both collapsed in midair making a small explosion as steam covered the battleground.

Everyone started coughing and the fog gave a good cover for the others trying to escape. Ralf grabbed Francis and Sally by the hands and ran for the trees. He got to the trail and started running when he saw a group of six people charging at him. He held the girls close but when they got closer he saw it wasn't more soldiers but his friends.

"What's happening?" they heard the explosion and a huge cloud of smoke was rising from the field.

"Help them," Sally pleaded with the adults, "they're still out there."

"Croconaw use surf," Billy shouted before having a coughing fit again and falling to his knees. The blue and yellow pokemon lifted up with a giant wave and crashed over the line of enemies in front of them. Some of the steam was clearing and Billy looked through it to where he hoped to see the knocked out fire pokemon.

Instead he watched his Croconaw get sent flying back towards him where it tumbled and then got to its feet while still skidding. It pressed a hand to the ground to stop itself and started panting worse than before, "Croconaw," it growled looking forwards at the enemies who were now in plain sight.

Many of the pokemon in front of them started getting back to their feet but some were still lying there without the strength to move. _Not enough, and Croconaw is still too tired from his earlier battle._ "Billy," he heard the boy on his left whisper and looked to where Drago was staring with an open mouth. Croconaw had stopped panting and was smiling at his master with a toothy grin. It started to glow white and got brighter until the boy couldn't even see the pokemon inside anymore.

"Don't let it evolve," the man on top of the Arcanine shouted. Ivo looked around and saw that he wasn't commanding many soldiers any longer, there were only about twenty pokemon left surrounding the kids and most were badly damaged already.

"Rapidash use stomp," the fire horse sprinted forwards but before it could hit its mark, both Pikachu and Hitmonlee slammed into it from the side knocking it away and to the ground.

"Give him some time," Drago said to the reddish brown haired girl and she nodded at the blonde boy. They separated and fought incoming pokemon from either side but the Captain wasn't going to let this happen.

Ivo shouted, "Strength," and his pokemon charged forwards ready to slam into the morphing pokemon as hard as it did boulders when its master needed it to. Billy looked down at his pokedex and it showed Croconaw's name disappear from the line where its health was, but on another line he saw the level fifty two Arcanine approaching fast.

"No!" he yelled and right at Arcanine was about to hit, a small green monster jumped up in the air in front of it. _Bulbasaur?_ it opened the bud on its back and released a blue powder right at Arcanine's face an instant before it got slammed by the beast and thrown back behind the transforming monster. Billy was so distracted by the new arrival that when he looked back at Croconaw he was stunned speechless.

"Arghh!" Ivo shouted as for the second time in twenty minutes, his Arcanine had been put to sleep by sleep powder. He looked up and was also stunned but instead of speechless, a smile formed across his face. "This is perfect, when Arcanine gets up we'll have an even better yield than I thought."

Drago watched his Raichu get tossed back and it fainted at his feet. The girl they fought with watched Hitmonchan get punched in the face and it collapsed as well. They felt all was lost as they looked back and dropped their jaws.

Looming over Billy, a few feet away from him, was a ginormous monster. It was entirely blue except for a small part of its stomach and its bottom jaw which were both pale. "Feraligatr," it roared in a low voice that seemed to shake the ground. It was more than double Billy's height and had large red spikes on its head and down its back all the way to the extra long blue tail.

"Let's try this again," Billy said looking forwards at all the trainers backing away from him. "Feraligatr," he saw the name on the pokedex and listened to his friend confirm it, "use surf." He said it completely calm despite the still twenty level difference in his pokemon and the captain's.

Arcanine was standing up tired and realized it was sent to sleep again. Angrily it looked for the culprit who it had already unknowingly taken down and instead saw a monster bigger than it was. Then it saw the water forming beneath the blue creature and spreading out twenty yards in either direction. The wave grew taller and taller, until it towered over the Nimbus soldiers and injured pokemon.

Feraligatr was at the top of the wave and the kids were on the other side, recalling their pokemon and glaring at the few trainers that got stuck on their side of the attack.

They all turned and looked through the translucent wave at the Nimbus. Some turned and ran, others got behind their pokemon which stood firm against the wave as it hit its maximum height. _Eh, Brendan__'__s was a lot bigger,_ was all Billy could think as the wave started pushing forwards and slamming into the pokemon before it.

Rapidash stumbled to its feet and took a few steps back but when the wave hit it, it stood firm planting its feet in the ground. Ivo ran over and jumped on top of his Arcanine, holding on as tight as possible. The wave slammed into them and washed over, _it__'__s so powerful,_ the Nimbus leader thought as he watched his allies get overtaken by the wave and thrown up in it. Only him and three others managed to keep their pokemon on the ground as the wave finally collapsed.

Ivo was soaked and he looked around after the wave fell to see three comrades on his sides holding on to their pokemon that managed not to be wrecked by the wave. Then he saw two more that weren't even caught in it back behind the children, but what made his eyes open wide as saucers was the group approaching from the tree line.

"Scyther, use wing attack," the two Nimbus soldiers closest to the trees who were looking at the field spun around and saw a group of trainers charging at them. A tall green pokemon with wings on its back jumped up in the air and flapped its wings, sending gusts of air into the only pokemon one of them had left. The Electrike was already down to its last legs from a fight it barely won with a Minun and when it was hit it fainted for good.

"Boss I think we should retreat," the woman with the short white hair ran up to him from next to her Vigoroth. "The odds have suddenly turned against us."

"I still have my pokemon, we'll be," he stopped talking and looked for his Rapidash but didn't see her until he looked behind him. The horse had managed to last the first few seconds of when surf hit but couldn't hold itself up any longer and passed out inside the wave, getting thrown with the rest of them. He saw his fellow soldiers grabbing their pokeballs and returning all the unconscious pokemon around them and he recalled his Rapidash as well.

"Sir?" the woman questioned looking over at the group of ten plus angry trainers glaring at them. Ralf, Rick, and the others had grouped up with them to make their intimidation factor grow. Now the line was the original six, along with the six new incomers, and the hiker who was hiding in the woods without any usable pokemon who was watching the whole time.

Ivo looked yearningly at the Feraligatr but closed his eyes and sighed, "You're right, it's time to retreat." Everyone on the field was relieved, no one wanted this fight to drag out longer than it had. The man looked angrily ahead at the opposing trainers, "I'll be back, next time we won't be so understanding and we _will _take your pokemon."

"No you will NOT!" Billy shouted at the top of his lungs and everyone was quiet. He was in the front of the group of trainers standing right next to his giant Feraligatr. "I may have been lenient today, but if you ever try to steal my, or anyone else's pokemon again. I will, _kill _you," he emphasized the word 'kill' like the other man had emphasized 'will.' "You can come with stronger forces, bring an army for all I care." The others around Billy wished he would shut up already but the boy kept shouting, "Because you just lost to six of us, now a few more are here and you're terrified. What if next time you come we are serious and instead of calling five friends in for reinforcements, we call in fifty? Or a hundred?"

The trainers behind him finally realized what Billy was attempting and all started grinning evilly, trying to make the bluff seem more believable. The Nimbus soldiers had all called back their pokemon except for the Captain who was still sitting atop his fire lion. They started backing away and then turned, jogging the other direction as their captain led the away. "Don't forget it," Drago shouted after them.

"Follow them," Lucy ordered the group that had met with them, "they might try taking someone else's pokemon before they leave the valley. Don't let them," Rick nodded and ran off following the group of Nimbus from a distance with his Scyther still out and five others followed him.

"Great job William," Ralf congratulated and walked up behind the kid, patting him on the back and laughing heartily. "You really scared them off, I think without you we all would've lost our pokemon." Sally and Francis thanked him as well.

The hiker who Lucy and Drago beat earlier looked around for his friend Tony whom he sent back to the house to get help, but the man was nowhere in sight. _Guess he stayed behind since his pokemon were all KOed anyway. _

"Hey Billy, you were really scaring me there with that bluff you pulled." Drago laughed and put an arm around his friend's head on his other shoulder pulling him in. "There aren't even fifty people in this valley, let alone a hundred."

"I think it will work," Lucy stated after watching the reactions from the Nimbus, she believed they really wouldn't be back. _Though I__'__m surprised there were so many Nimbus troops between Fallarbor and Rustboro, this is usually big time Solar ground._

sc

The group of Nimbus jogged until they reached Fallarbor and got inside the city walls. What used to be a small town now had huge skyscrapers inside of it and more were being built as they walked down main street. Most buildings were under construction as more additions were being made to them as the inhabitants of Fallarbor were some of the richest in Hoenn.

They walked through the entire town until they reached the opposite end where there was a large dome-shaped building right inside the walls leading to Route 113. He nodded to his troops and they scattered, most heading straight for the pokemon center while two followed him into the building.

On his left walked his first lieutenant, Ula, who was slightly older than he was and had silver hair. On his other side walked a shorter man who was over double his thirty years old and was pissed that he couldn't go and heal his pokemon sooner.

The Captain threw open a set of double doors after walking down a long hallway and he entered a war room. The three of them saluted the man in the front of the room and he nodded at them to sit. Both lieutenants took their seats but before anyone started talking, Ivo walked up to the man with red hair and whispered something in his ear.

"What?" Maxie growled angrily and then relaxed. _It can__'__t be helped, we__'__ll treat them like __'__that__' __city and take them when the time is right._ He walked to the side of the room and wrote in small lowercase letters with blue marker on a whiteboard, 'Route 114.' Above the words in all caps and black writing was the word 'LITTLEROOT' and above that was a sentence, 'Do not attack.'

**A/n Longest chapter by far, hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review below and tell me what you thought.**

Wiz300

Where's the other chapter v.v

**Haha I got an email with your review on it and realized I forgot to upload the chapter so thanks!**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

The valley was peaceful for the next week as Billy went back to his normal schedule of battling wild pokemon and trainers as much as he could. The difference from before was that now he joined Drago in getting self-defense lessons from Lucy.

Within twenty four hours of the battle against the Nimbus, Billy had evolved his Bulbasaur into an Ivysaur. He went back to mainly training his Feraligatr even after it evolved but he trained his other new friend as well.

He and Drago paid Lanette money and asked her to pick up some supplies from town and gave her a list of what they needed. She was stunned by the amount of cash the kids handed her and took a few other trainers with her to go pick up what they needed.

She asked them why they couldn't go themselves and the boys scratched the backs of their heads and gave each other knowing looks. "We're kind of on the run," she sighed and went to get them the training supplies: potions, super potions, antidotes, full heals, the kids had lots of money and were spending it all on things for their pokemon.

That day when Lanette returned, she was arguing with the two other ladies she brought with her into Fallarbor. Lucy was walking with the boys on their way back to the house when they saw Lanette and ran over to see if they could grab their things. The woman saw Lucy with them and tried walking away but the kids ran in front of her, "Hey Lanette, could we," Drago was cut off by one of the other women.

"We have to tell her," the girl said. She was a few years older than Lucy, and Lanette turned back to her giving her a look that said 'don't do it.'

"Dee, let's not, it will only hurt her," at this point Lucy knew that they were talking about her and growled.

"What?" she asked Lanette who just turned away and started walking to the house.

The eighteen year old named Dee was a foot taller than Lucy who was almost half a foot taller than the boys. She crouched and the other girl who kept telling her not to sighed exasperated and watched on in silence as Dee began speaking. "Lucy, we, we think we saw your pokemon."

The girl's face showed confusion and suddenly the weight of what she'd been told hit her. "What? Where? When?" she started shouting and the other girl frowned. "What's wrong? Are they hurt?"

"No, it's not that," she stopped talking and fiddled with her fingers.

The other girl who was standing by decided enough was enough and started speaking, "They're in the service of the Don." Lucy looked up at the woman and she continued, "We saw him walking through town with his bodyguards, one of them had a Hitmonchan and Hitmontop walking behind it and they didn't look too happy. As if…"

"As if they were following a trainer who hadn't raised them," Billy finished with a scowl.

"Then let's go rescue them," Drago offered and his friend seemed in on the idea.

The girl who said it so bluntly scoffed at the boy's arrogance. "Even Lucy knows that if you plan on going up against the Don you better be prepared to die."

Dee seemed sad that she even mentioned it and stood back up, "Sorry." She muttered and turned around, walking away with the other girl.

Lucy was standing completely still after she heard that her friends were in the city leader's possession. Drago opened his mouth and then closed it, and opened it again, but he couldn't think of anything to tell the girl. _Her pokemon are so close, but farther than they ever were when she didn__'__t know what had happened to them._

"They told me," she whispered softly, "they said that my friends were going to help them defeat the Nimbus." Billy realized the girl was talking about when the Solars stole her pokemon, "so how did _he_ end up with them?"

"You said the men who attacked you were all wearing masks right?" Billy questioned and Lucy finally made eye contact with him. When she saw the anger and the hatred in the boy's eyes it made her confused, her pokemon were the ones stolen.

"Yeah, red masks," she said and thought back to the men who had killed her closest friend.

"No?" Drago stated and turned to Billy who nodded. "But then the Magma and Aqua soldiers," Billy nodded again. "With the Don," Billy continued nodding as they seemed to be thinking the same things at the same time.

"Can someone fill me in on what you're talking about?" Lucy asked angrily and raised a fist causing the two boys to back up a few feet.

"If the pokemon you owned were taken by men in masks, saying they were Solars, they were probably lying to you." Billy stated and Lucy cocked her head to the side. "At first I thought that both sides were wearing each others' uniforms to make the other side look horrendous when they did terrible things. But then in Meteor Falls," he stopped as Drago nodded, thinking the same thing.

"That blonde woman said that she was a leader in both armies, which means that both Archie and Maxie are working together. But with men both that powerful, how could they work together without one taking charge?" Drago stopped and allowed Billy to continue their combined hypothesis.

"Unless someone already has taken charge, someone who benefits from the war. Someone whose city just keeps getting bigger and richer as the war goes on. A man who once ran a criminal organization bigger and more powerful than both Team Aqua and Team Magma. A person who would slaughter cities full of people if it could keep the hate between the sides high enough to continue the war." Billy stopped talking as him and Drago made eye contact with each other.

"Wait, I'm still lost, Aqua and Magma, those were broken apart years ago. How could they be behind this war?" Lucy asked. So many questions were flying through her head and she couldn't keep up with the boys who seemed to be on a completely different page.

"Their criminal organizations disappeared the same time as the start of the war," Drago looked at the auburn haired girl, "I don't think that was a coincidence."

"All they needed was someone to bring them together, someone that could plan out a world that needed them and would make them rich, even if it resulted in the slaughter of millions." Billy stated, "and that person was…"

"Don Giovanni," the fourteen year old growled and the boys looked at her. She finally understood what they were saying and it sounded so ridiculous that it was impossible for them to come up with it on their own. It had to be true, "The mastermind, strategic genius, billionaire, former leader of the infamous Team Rocket, Don Giovanni."

"We learned about them in school," Billy started. He had no idea that the criminal organization the leader of Fallarbor once owned was Team Rocket. "They stole pokemon, it was their main goal. Not like Aqua and Magma which just wanted to awaken the ancient pokemon."

"Stealing pokemon wasn't all they wanted, the man was a gym leader and had a lot of press when he came out and apologized for his organization. That was when he abolished Team Rocket over fifteen years ago. During his press conference he admitted trying to take over the world but had an epiphany after being defeated by his own son who was disgusted in what he'd become. He was never arrested because no police force had the power to apprehend him." She scowled and continued, "Apparently he has reverted back to his old ways and if this war keeps going he's going to have enough power that he really will be able to accomplish his goal."

"If he hasn't already," Drago chimed in, "If Maxie and Archie really are working for him, then at any time he could turn the tides of the war. People believe he has to close off trade to half the region in order to cause a shift in the balance of the war, but really all he has to do is command one of them to start losing." The blonde boy was amazed at how thorough this plan was. "Once he chooses who he wants to win, that side will quickly defeat the other, then he'll pretty much rule the region and have enough power to take over other regions around us that have no armies, they haven't been fighting for years and don't know the first thing about war."

"While here we have experienced soldiers making up a decent percentage of our population," Lucy stated and then stopped, looking down at the ground with a defeated look on her face.

"Why are you sad?" Billy asked with his head ducked a little. The front of his hair covered his eyes and cast a shadow over them so the other two couldn't see the top of his face but the bottom showed an angry scowl.

She sighed and admitted what she was thinking, "Even when Dee told me that my friends were with the Don, I thought maybe I could still get them. Now," she stopped seeing Billy's scowl get deeper into a rage filled snarl as he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and looked up into her eyes surprising Lucy and Drago.

"So what? You're just going to leave your friends!?" he rose his voice at her which continued to surprise both of the other children there. Drago had never seen him so angry.

"It's not like I want to," she shouted back at him and slapped his hand away from her shirt but he didn't let go. The slap really hurt his hand but he only grabbed on tighter, curling his fingers around the fabric and the girl made eye contact with him before breaking it and looking at the ground, "he's got the entire world fooled. He has two armies under his control. If people like Archie and Maxie are being controlled by him, then how could I possibly defeat even just his bodyguards."

"_You_ won't have to," the boy stated and she looked at him. Drago stared angrily at Billy who was still clenching the girl's shirt but he finally released it and said, "_We _can do it."

"I can't ask you guys to do this, it's a suicide mission." Lucy said and looked at the other boy.

"Hah, it would be fun," Drago said smiling at the girl. "I don't like what they did to you, no one should have their pokemon taken from them. So yeah I'll help you out."

"It's killing two birds with one stone," Billy stated and also smiled at the girl. "Sure we'll be getting your pokemon back, but I have another motive for going in."

"To end the war?" Lucy asked and Billy snapped his head to Drago who started whistling like he had no idea why the boy was glaring at him. "It's okay, I think it's a noble cause." she continued, "If anyone can do it, it's you."

The black haired boy smiled at her and they locked eyes for a second before Drago spoke up, "Well then let's get to training," he cast an angry glance at Billy who tilted his head confused at the other boy's behavior. "I know that my pokemon aren't leveling up like they used to, that just means we have to work extra hard to push more experience into them before we move in on Fallarbor."

"Hey guys," Lucy started before they ran off again, "your pokemon are still damaged remember?" The two boys were planning on running back down the trail and suddenly remembered why they had been heading back to the house in the first place. "One more thing," she started as they turned and made for Lanette's, "we can't tell anyone about our plan or they're going to try and stop us alright?"

The other kids nodded their heads in agreement. For the remainder of the day they rested and went back out at night to fight the pokemon that didn't come out in the daytime. During the time they were out, Billy and Lucy went around fighting every pokemon they could find, it didn't level their pokemon up very fast considering the large level difference between the wild pokemon in the high teens low twenties, compared to their own pokemon which were in the thirties and low forties.

Drago went out that night with a different objective and only fought a few pokemon before catching a Murkrow. The all black bird squawked angrily during their battle and managed to take his level thirty eight Plusle down to half health despite the bird only being level twenty one. _You__'__re mine,_ he threw a great ball that he had Lanette buy for him at the bird and it was his.

They met back up before dawn and went back inside to get to sleep before everyone else woke up. None of their pokemon were in desperate need of aid because the pokemon in the valley just couldn't damage theirs enough anymore, so they were able to sleep soundly knowing they could go right back out in the morning and train some more before having Lanette heal them.

Two days after they decided to get Lucy's pokemon back, the three kids trained in the morning and then went into town to heal up their pokemon in the afternoon. It had been weeks since they'd left Rustboro and they hoped that anyone looking for them had long since given up.

"Look," Drago nodded at a table near the wall of the pokemon center. Lucy was waiting in line behind him and Billy was getting his pokemon healed at the moment as the girl followed his subtle movement. Sitting at the table was a man sipping a coffee and reading a newspaper. The main article on the front page had a title in big letters that spelled out, "Mossdeep Falls!"

"That was a Nimbus city," she whispered back at him and he growled.

_Every time it seems like one side gains the advantage, the other bounces right back. Makes sense if Giovanni really is in control of this whole thing. Can__'__t have a war that__'__s too stagnant or people will get suspicious._ Drago was up next and handed the nurse behind the counter his pokeballs. He smiled at her and she looked back at him with a confused look, "Have we met before?"

"Sorry, no I'm just remembering one of your relatives. She used to help me out a lot," the Nurse Joy behind the counter smiled wide at the sound of that and asked which one. "The one in Rustboro."

The red haired woman grinned and whispered, "I know who you are." The kid took a small step back feeling unsafe, "Don't worry. My sister told me that word was you were heading north and that if you made it here safely to give you this." She reached under the counter and grabbed a box, lifting it on top and blowing some dust off of it. "I was starting to doubt you were ever coming here."

"Thank you," he grabbed the box and then his newly healed pokeballs and smiled at her, "You're all really nice people. Thank her for me won't you?"

"Of course," she replied, "who's next?"

Drago went over to Billy who was leaning against the wall next to the door. Lucy was getting her pokemon healed and the blonde boy shook the package but didn't hear anything inside. There was definitely something in the cardboard box because it was pretty heavy but he just put it in his bag and started talking to his friend, "So what are we looking for?"

They spoke in hushed tones because they didn't want anyone to know why they were there. Healing their pokemon was just an excuse for being in the city if anyone asked them. Really they were trying to find where Giovanni's guards kept their pokemon hidden.

As Lucy walked over to the boys she asked what they were looking at and walked up to the window next to the door. The window covered almost the entire front wall of the pokemon center and gave them a great view of the street. When the fourteen year old girl got to the glass and looked out she froze.

In the center of the street was a large light blue pokemon with spikes coming out of its back. On the front left and front right of the pokemon, men in black suits were were walking forwards down the road and people moved out of the way as they got close.

Billy looked around and saw that most people on the sidewalks were smiling and laughing as the group walked down the street. Some people weren't happy however, and instead they glared or looked away with pained looks. The large beast in the center intrigued him, _it looks a lot like Nidorino, but bigger__… __and blue._ On top of the beast was a man, sitting on a specially made saddle for the pokemon and leaning back enjoying the ride. Billy subtly removed his pokedex from his back pocket and pointed it out the window, seeing that it was called Nidoqueen. "No," the kid whispered taking a step away from the window. "It can't be."

**A/n Sorry to end it there, kind of a tease but don****'****t worry; another chapter will be on the way tomorrow. Again thanks for reading and leave a comment/question/prediction below.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

"There," Drago pointed behind the monster and two others were taking up the rear corners of the convoy. The female guards each had pokemon out and walking behind them, taking up the very rear of the parade. In the back on the other side of the street, a pink and a yellow pokemon walked behind a long blonde haired woman. He thought it was the woman from Meteor Falls but when he looked closer this one was obviously shorter and had a little longer hair. Drago growled thinking about the woman in the cave, _Jess, I will pay you back for what you did to your comrade._ He scowled and then saw the two pokemon walking on the side of the street closer to them.

"Wait," Billy started to say as he turned his head to where Lucy was standing a few seconds before. The girl was running from her spot to the door, behind the other female guard with bright orange hair, were her two pokemon. Drago saw the two fighting types and after already seeing the Lucy's Hitmonlee, he knew that the others were hers. One of them had fists that looked like boxing gloves and the other was much shorter with a point on its head.

The blonde boy looked to his left and saw Lucy making a sprint for the door. _Guess it__'__s now or never,_ he was about to charge the street with her when he watched an amazing, unbelievable sight. Billy was a blur as he ran twice as fast as the girl and tackled her past the front door.

Nurse Joy from behind the counter saw who it was marching in front of the pokemon center and backed away whispering loudly to the kids, "What are you doing?!" Drago could not look away from Billy who had pinned Lucy to the ground and had a hand over her mouth. _Uhhhh,_ his mouth went ajar and he tilted his head to the side.

She grabbed Billy's hand from in front of her mouth and pushed it to the side, "Get off of me!" she growled at the boy glaring him right in the eyes.

Billy slapped her across the face and the room became still. Even the old man drinking a coffee from a table near them was staring speechless at the stupidity of the small boy towards the girl. She was bigger than him and that wasn't just in height. He whispered as to not alert the people outside, "They _will_ kill us all without even batting an eye. It's not a 'maybe', or 'sure we can do this if we try hard enough,' it's we're dead if we try and your pokemon stay unhappy and in the hands of those monsters for the rest of their probably short-lived lives."

Drago looked at the floor where Billy was standing and saw the boy's pokedex lying there. It still had an image on the screen and Drago's eyes opened wide, "Level eighty," he stated seeing the number next to Nidoqueen's name.

"That's right," Billy stated angrily and shook the girl beneath him who was still growling but no longer struggling to toss the boy off of her. "We aren't going to save your pokemon by rushing in without a plan and dying. Now are you calm enough not to run out the door as soon as I stand up?"

"If I wasn't, I would've thrown you off a while ago," she replied scowling at him as he lifted his weight. She stood and cracked her neck twice on either side before interlocking her fingers in front of her and cracking them too. Billy suddenly realized what he'd done and backed away a little. Instincts had taken over and he tackled her without thinking of the repercussions, though the consequences if he hadn't would have been much, much worse.

By now, Nidoqueen was already almost completely past the front of the pokemon center and the trainers in the back were still looking ahead, ignoring the pokemon that followed obediently behind them. As the kids looked on in anger, Hitmonchan's head twitched and it stopped walking, Hitmontop did the same and both started spinning around.

When they were completely facing the other direction, the pokemon looked into the pokemon center's window and stared straight into the eyes of a young girl who stared right back at them. They felt like running over to the girl who had started to smile but heard a shout behind him, "Get your asses over here," their new trainer demanded and the two fighting types took one last sad look at their trainer whose smile was fading before turning back and jogging back to the convoy.

"It's not their fault," Drago said resting a hand on Lucy's left shoulder as she looked down with a tear in her eye. "Lucy, Lucy!" he turned her around and lifted up her chin. She looked heartbroken and the look in her eyes was complete despair.

"We said, we said we would train and come here," she sniffed hard and wiped the drops from her face, "but no matter how much training we do in the valley, it would take years to reach levels able to defeat that man."

As the two of them talked, Billy was standing at the doorway grasping the handle as tight as he could. _Now, _he opened the door and sped walked away from the pokemon center, watching the group of suited up people and pokemon saunter down the street. He walked at a quick walking pace down the sidewalk blending in with the townsfolk around him.

The group turned left at the next street corner and Billy waited at the corner until a group of people were turning left and he made the turn with them as to look like part of the crowd. He just saw the fighting type pokemon turning right at an intersection up ahead and realized they must've picked up the pace because he was falling behind.

He crossed the street and a few bicyclists yelled at him as he ran across. "Sorry," he called at them as he jogged down the sidewalk and looked down the next street. This time the Nidoqueen had stopped moving and the others around it had as well.

A figure from on top of the teal pokemon jumped off of it and landed on both feet without even seeming to notice the fourteen foot drop. After the jump, the man continued to walk straight at the double doors of the high-rise in front of him. As Billy looked up he saw that the building was taller than any he'd ever seen before and was beyond magnificent. _Should__'__ve guessed the man wanting all the power in the world would give himself the biggest building in the city. _

He thought the other trainers would follow the man but a different guy in a suit stepped out of the building and held the door open for the boss. The kid got a good look at the man who didn't look so tough in front of the massive bald bouncer at the door. Giovanni had short brown hair and wore a black suit with sunglasses on, and he had a gold watch on his wrist that reflected a light right into Billy's eyes.

The boy closed them tight and when he reopened them the man was gone. Next, the burly man followed him inside and closed the door behind him. Now the remaining trainers on the street seemed to relax a bit and started talking to each other. They recalled their pokemon and continued talking to each other as they walked further down and across the street.

Billy finally walked around the corner he was peeking his head around and started walking fast down the sidewalk. The group was pretty far away from him and he didn't want to lose sight of them. As he fast-walked past the building the Don stepped into he turned and looked through the glass. The large man inside the doors stared right back at him and frowned. _Not a nice guy I see,_ he kept going and followed the group of people to a much smaller building that they all entered as a group.

The twelve year old looked across the street at the building the group entered. It didn't look like much, nothing in comparison to the glamour and luxury of the skyscraper Giovanni went in. It had brick foundation and very few, small windows. The door was metal and clanked shut when the group entered so Billy couldn't even see inside the place.

_Perfect, _he grinned and headed back around the city for the pokemon center.

A minute after Billy had exited the pokemon center, the two other children were still discussing what they could do. "…If we head past Fortree there should be high enough level pokemon that we could," the blonde kid tried but the girl interrupted Drago again.

"By the time we get back to Fallarbor with high level pokemon it will have been months, in the service of _that _man they'll be dead long before then." She glared at Drago looking for a response but the boy was spinning his head back and forth.

"Where's Billy?" the blonde kid asked finally looking back at Lucy.

She looked around the room and noticed the boy was nowhere in sight. She also saw that the old man drinking his coffee and the nurse were staring at them in disbelief. _Crap we were arguing way too loud,_ they were discussing plans that went against the leader of the city, just being in the same room made the other two accomplices and they kept looking at each other wondering if the unbelievable conversation was actually happening.

"That boy left when you two started talking," Nurse Joy responded in a trance. _Defeat Giovanni, take back her pokemon, what are they talking about?_

"What?!" the two others shouted simultaneously making the elderly man almost fall out of his seat. The looked at each other and Drago started, "He wouldn't have just gone chasing after them after specifically saying not to, right?"

"He tackled me, _he_ TACKLED _me,_ just so he could go fight?!" Another person walked into the pokemon center at that time and they realized they couldn't be talking there anymore. She looked pleadingly at the old man and up at the nurse who nodded her head, she was going to keep her mouth shut. The two kids stormed out of the building and looked both directions, Lucy continued speaking loudly still as the sun was starting to set in the distance, "If he gets himself killed I'm going to kill him!"

The thirteen year old had a small urge to tell her that that would be impossible but he was too busy looking for his best friend. "We shouldn't move in case he comes back here looking for us." Drago stated even though he wanted to search the entire city for Billy.

The two of them stood there in front of the pokemon center for a couple more minutes and Lucy was getting angrier and more nervous by the second. As she was about to snap in front of a teenage couple walking past, they heard a voice call their names from down the street. _Thank God,_ she was relieved more than she would let Drago know and instead put an angry face on as she marched over to the small boy. "Where have you been?" she asked lifting him by the collar, feeling like now was the right time to get payback for the pokemon center.

"I followed the woman who took your pokemon and found where she is now. Giovanni isn't with her so we don't have to worry about his super powerful pokemon." The girl lowered Billy to the ground slowly and he let out a sigh of relief. She was scary when she was mad, _scratch that she__'__s always scary._

"Why didn't you let us know?" Drago asked still a little pissed off.

The younger boy looked at him and answered, "I think it would have been too obvious if there were three of us following them. I'm smallest and least noticeable, it was a smart decision," the blonde kid didn't want to say so but Billy was right and he just humphed instead.

"You still should have said something instead of just running off like that," he muttered.

"We're you worried?" Billy asked in a sarcastic voice but the way the other two looked at him he saw they really were, "Oh," he looked down, "sorry."

Lucy was the first to forgive him and smiled, hitting him on the shoulder but making sure it was light enough that it didn't hurt. "Thank you," the boy smiled back at her and finally Drago sighed and grinned too.

"So when are we going?" the thirteen year old asked. Lucy looked at Billy expectantly and Drago continued, "I don't like the idea of Lucy's pokemon staying with those people any longer than they have already."

"I agree, but," the other two groaned at the hesitant tone of Billy's voice, "I don't think we should go right now. I managed to get a glance at one of their pokemon's levels, the yellow one was called Electabuzz and was level 34."

"That doesn't seem too high," Drago remarked confidently.

"Maybe not, but that's just one of them. I doubt that that one is the highest level one they have, plus there could be more than just those four hiding in the building they went in to." Lucy frowned at the younger boy's solid logic and wished she could do something.

"So what are we going to do?" the red headed girl asked. "Every second we're here is a second my pokemon think I've truly abandoned them. They looked at me, and when they did I saw the smallest bit of hope in their eyes. It dissolved when they saw me unmoving from my spot." She growled and looked at the black haired boy, "when do I get to save my friends?"

Billy grinned at her and said, "Sunday." The girl tilted her head in confusion, expecting him to have a much vaguer answer like, 'soon,' or 'when the time is right,' but Sunday!?

_That__'__s two days from now,_ "Why wait?" Drago asked. "It's not like we're going to train up too much in the next two days that the battles will be much easier on us."

The younger boy continued with his reasoning, "We don't know if the building I saw them enter was their base, or if they'll be there still right now, or even tomorrow. We don't know pretty much anything," he said and looked around the street realizing he raised his voice a little. It was getting close to dark anyways and almost no one was wandering the street near them. "The only thing we know is that the group that has your pokemon takes a stroll with the Don at around six o'clock. It could've just been today, but it seemed like a routine thing they were doing, so if it happens again tomorrow, we can assume it will happen on Sunday."

The three kids looked at each other waiting for someone to say something about the plan when Lucy started in a low voice, "Agreed." Billy sighed a breath of relief knowing that Drago would follow along now too. She continued, "If we really do pull this off however, we will be hunted by the most powerful man in the world for the rest of our lives."

"No." Billy stated and they looked at him oddly, "We'll be hunted for the rest of _his_ life. Which I plan to make very, very, short."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

On Saturday, the children went back to Fallarbor around five in the afternoon and watched the convoy go on their apparent daily walk. The four with Giovanni were the same as the day before, and after the walk was over, they went to the same brick building, walking in the metal door and closing it behind them.

They had spent the entire morning training harder than ever trying to level up their pokemon. People in the valley seemed a little suspicious of them, disappearing two nights in a row and returning after dark. They thought the kids were out training but no one had fought them after the sun started setting and the more they talked about it the more it seemed like they were up to something.

On Saturday night when they returned to Lanette's house, they tried sneaking in and closing the door silently behind them but the lights flicked on and a group of people were standing in a semicircle in the middle of the living room. "Oh," Billy's mouth opened and he began looking left and right nervously, "sorry for waking you."

The fourteen and thirteen year old sighed at the other boys naivety and Drago said to him, "They were obviously waiting for us."

_Oh,_ the black haired boy looked even more nervous now.

"Where have you kids been?" Lanette said walking out of her study. The others said they were going to wait for the kids to return but she assumed they were all going to decide the kids were fine and just go to sleep. Instead the whole house was awake and disturbing her during the few hours she usually got the most work done in.

"Out training," Drago responded. He didn't look surprised at all by the group of people and walked past them to his bed where he took off his shoes and started getting ready to sleep.

"No one said they battled you guys," the fire tosser that was the first person Drago fought when he exited Meteor Falls, Tommy, commented. "The same thing happened last night, where've you guys been, and don't lie this time."

"We were battling each other," Lucy said still next to Billy in the doorway.

"Really?" Lanette said surprised and some of the others did too but froze as the woman continued, "So then your pokemon must all be quite tuckered out, I'll take them for the night and have them all ready tomorrow morning." She looked at Lucy, waiting for the girl to make the next move.

_Shit!_ Lucy hadn't thought about that and now that all three children were thinking about it, it was hard to hide they didn't go into the city when almost every night they had Lanette heal their pokemon anyway. _Going to the pokemon center was a bad idea,_ the girl thought and was trying to think of another solution but there were twenty plus pairs of eyes focused on her and she cracked, "Alright, we went to the pokemon center afterwards."

"Lucy!" Drago shouted from his bed. _She cracked so quick,_ he was surprised she allowed herself to get cornered in such a short time. _Got to show her how to lie like a pro,_ he laid back on his bed and waited for the torrent of angry questions to come.

"What were you thinking?"

"People are looking for you two!"

"Did anyone see you?"

"Why?" Lanette asked a little louder than everyone else but it quieted them all down when she did.

"I wanted to see the city," Drago commented from his bed. _This is enough, if I let those two talk any longer they__'__re going to tell them everything about__… __everything,_ he chuckled to himself and saw that no one else was smiling. "I'm sorry, we've been here for almost a month now and I've never gone to the city that's only a few miles away. The others wouldn't let me go alone because they thought I was going to get caught so they came with me. We tried out the pokemon center which is why we don't need any healing tonight."

Everyone in the room seemed a little less pissed at the decision after hearing the kid's reasoning and started talking amongst themselves but Lanette spoke again. "Two days in a row?"

"Yesterday they found me walking towards the city and stopped me," Drago thought fast and answered, "but they saw how determined I was to go and agreed that we would head there today so I could get a good look." This time even Lanette seemed appeased and smiled at the blonde boy and then looked back at the other two who were standing still and nodding over and over.

"I understand why you wanted to go," she started as some of the others were going towards their own sleeping areas. "If you had explained to me how you were feeling, I would have understood and come with you." The grown woman sighed and shook her head smiling at the children, "Next time you do something like this, please tell me beforehand, ok?"

All three of them immediately felt guilty but all replied together, "Ok." They knew they would be breaking their word the next day, but they wouldn't have to face Lanette or the others with the guilt. Billy went and lay down on his cot, thinking about all the friends he made in the valley, _we can__'__t come back here after tomorrow, it will put all of our friends in danger. After we leave for Fallarbor, we__'__ll never see them again._ His attitude changed as he reminded himself, _we__'__ll never see them until this war ends._ With that he smiled and closed his eyes, he would need his sleep for the day ahead.

_Fwew, Lanette is sharp. I almost didn__'__t get away with that,_ Drago closed his eyes and smirked, _almost._

_I__'__m coming you guys, one more day, then you__'__ll be home._ Lucy held her pokeball close being able to feel comfortable sleeping for once next to her pokemon. No healing meant not giving him to Lanette for a night, and with the safety of at least one of her friends assured, she went to sleep.

The next morning the kids headed out early and made sure they saw every single one of their friends. They wandered the entire valley, hiked up the trail to Meteor Falls, even met up with the people who didn't stay at Lanette's who were out camping in the woods. Most people were confused by their attitudes however, the children didn't do the thing they normally did when they first arrived somewhere; they weren't battling.

Every time they started talking to someone, the person expected them to challenge their own pokemon, but it never happened. Even when they were the ones to propose the challenge the kids declined which shocked them even more. After eating lunch with Lanette and some of their friends, the kids looked at each other with determined, yet solemn looks on their faces and nodded.

They went back in the house and made sure everything was in order before heading out. All three of them popped their heads into the healing room where Lanette was working on someone's Taillow. "Hey Lanette, we're going back out." Drago said with a smile and the woman looked back at him returning the gesture.

He walked away and out the door to wait for the others and Billy was the next one to go inside. As Drago got outside and away from the other two, he reached up and rubbed his sleeve on his eyes.

"Hey Lanette," the woman looked at the kid who unlike his friend, was not smiling. She turned away from her work and looked at him oddly, "Thanks," he stopped and clenched his eyes tight before reopening them and smiling at her, "for being a mom to me." _Sharon, Mom, Lanette, _he wished he could find a motherly figure in his life and stay with her but that wasn't where his path was leading.

"Aww, Billy," she walked over to him and hugged him tight. "You are quite welcome," _he__'__s acting weird, he doesn__'__t usually show this much sadness._ She looked up as the boy wiped a tear from his face and turned around.

_Don__'__t say goodbye, don__'__t do it,_ he walked out of the room without another word and looked at Lucy sadly who saw it was her turn and walked into the room as well.

Lanette was just going back to her work when she saw another child walk in. This kid was taller, and had much longer hair than the two boys. "Lucy," she looked at the weird expression on the girl's face and thought, _there__'__s definitely something going on. Hmm,_ "What's up?"

"I'm sorry," Lucy said looking down at the ground.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Lanette responded hoping the girl wasn't going to reply with something new that would make her eat her words.

"That's not true," she lifted her head and had a hardened face set as she looked Lanette straight in the eyes. "When my pokemon were stolen I blamed you, I shouted that you didn't come to help me, and you wouldn't let me chase after them. I said it was all your fault they got away," Lanette looked away and Lucy continued, "I'm sorry because none of those things are true, I don't think that way, I never did."

Those words were eating away at the grown woman from the day Lucy spouted them at her angrily. "Why are you…"

"I blamed myself, it was because I didn't train them stronger that they were taken from me." Lucy looked up at the ceiling still glaring as she thought about that day, "All I needed was someone else to blame, but it was childish and selfish of me to do so. Please," she begged and looked to Lanette for the first time with pleading eyes, "forgive me."

"Oh of course I do," Lanette said smiling at the girl. "You were going through a tough time and the experience made you stronger. Who knows, one day you may be reunited with them."

Lanette instantly wished she wouldn't have said that as the girl's forming smile vanished and she looked off into the distance. "You're right," the auburn haired girl looked into Lanette's eyes, "we will be together again."

The woman watched as Lucy walked out and sighed, finally getting back to work on the Taillow but her mind was elsewhere. _Lucy and Billy seemed off, I__'__ll have a talk with them when they get home later._

The three kids met outside and looked into each others' eyes. "You guys ready?" Billy asked and the two on either side of him nodded, "then let's go." They started jogging in the direction of the city and sped down the trail. They had said all their goodbyes, even if they didn't let the others know that it was the end.

When they got into town it was five o'clock and they had an hour until Giovanni's squad marched down Main Street. The kids decided it didn't matter if anyone recognized them now because it was so close to their goal that by the time word got out they were in the city, it would be too late. Another reason was that without the risk of leading potential enemies back into the valley, they were feeling more daring. With their new attitudes they entered the pokemart and spent every last cent they owned filling up their packs for the long journey they would undergo after escaping.

They had a pretty good idea of where they would go after escaping to the east. There was a normal trail they could take all the way to Mauville but it was the obvious route and enemies would be everywhere waiting to ambush them. Instead, they decided to cut through the desert and come out on the other side, near Nimbus owned Fortree City.

As Drago was rearranging his bag so that there was more space for a few revives, he saw the box that Nurse Joy had given him under a paralyze heal. "I completely forgot about this," he pulled it out and it felt heavy, but he still couldn't tell what was inside it.

The blonde kid started pulling at a piece of tape holding the top shut when Billy called over to him from the door, "Let's get going."

"Sure," he took one last look at the box and then shoved it back inside his bag, _I__'__ll look at it later._ The kids walked up and down the street a bunch of times, not wanting to stay in one spot for too long. They stopped in front of the pokemon center after walking for a while to take a break and wound up standing there in wait for the group annoyed that it was taking them so long to appear. Finally they thought they saw the group coming down the street but when they looked closer it was a different crowd of people.

"It's past six," Lucy stated looking away from the false group and up at a clock on the front of a building near them. The two boys gulped, the plan was falling through, "where are they?"

"Come on," Billy said and started jogging down the route the convoy usually took. _Maybe they haven__'__t left yet, maybe Sunday is the day they don__'__t go this way, ahh,_ he continued jogging and stopped as he reached the street corner where turning down the next street would put them in front of the Don's building.

The kids lined up behind him as he waited to check and Lucy was getting aggravated. She thought she was going to have her friends in her arms by now. "Enough waiting," she marched out in front of Billy ignoring his whispered pleas. "I'm going to," she stopped as she got out from around the corner and her eyes grew three times as large.

The boys stepped out from behind the corner as well and stared in awe at the scene before them. There was no need to hide as a huge group of spectators were watching from the sidewalks as well. In the street, lined up in at least ten rows of five, were huge bird pokemon.

Billy turned and looked at the building they were planning on entering to attack the four guards and gulped nervously. Men and women, all in dark blue, almost black outfits, were swarming out of the metal door. They had purple 'F's printed huge across the entire front of their shirts and they were all running out to the pokemon lined up on the street.

"There," Drago pointed and they followed his finger to right in front of the doorway to Giovanni's skyscraper. The four convoy guards in suits were standing in front of the doors, two on each side.

"There they are," Lucy tried to step forwards but each boy grabbed one of her arms each with both of theirs.

"Stop."

"Hold on."

Even with both of them holding her back, she was still managing to inch forwards as she growled, "If they get on those birds, I might never see my friends ever again."

The four convoy guards waited until after the boss and his bouncer were out of the building before walking towards a few of the birds. The brown haired leader stopped walking and spoke, commanding the attention of everyone around him. From the distance the kids were at they couldn't hear what he said but the four guards bowed to their leader and walked back to the sidewalk.

One by one, each of the men in black uniforms boarded the bird pokemon. The street was covered in an army, and the huge burly man tossed two red pokeballs on the ground. "How powerful?" Lucy asked and Drago was already pulling out his pokedex.

The boss jumped up with ease and landed on top of one of the birds. It was large and brown and when Drago looked down he saw it was level 61, the blue and red one next to it was level 55. He showed the others the readings and Billy looked at the Swellow that the bouncer climbed on top of.

"Fly," the kids heard this command as the large man shouted from his Swellow and all the birds lifted up in the air, following the blue and red one in front. At some point the boss lifted up in the middle of his men and blended in with the rest of the birds.

"Where do you think they're going?" Drago asked. He looked at the others but they were staring at the group of four that were grinning at the group flying off into the distance.

All around them the crowd thinned out as people began heading home. The sun was setting and work was over, the people of Fallarbor were going home. The three kids began walking down the sidewalk making sure they kept watching the four remaining guards while they did. "Do you think there're any more in the building?" Lucy asked as the four began walking towards the brick foundation. The bright orange haired woman who had her pokemon pulled open the metal door and stepped inside, followed by the blonde, and then the two men.

"With the amount of people that were actually in there," Drago started nervously, "had we attacked yesterday or the day before, we wouldn't have stood a chance."

"That was before," Billy said calmly, trying not to think about what would have happened to them if they attacked that many people by themselves. There were over triple the amount of soldiers as the group that attacked them in the Valley.

Night had fallen on the city and very few people were walking past the three kids standing in front of the metal entrance. Drago saw a middle-aged man in a suit walking past and giving them weird looks. He started to get nervous that the people inside would learn of their being there before they could attack. "You guys ready?" the blond boy asked nervously.

Neither of the other two felt ready but they nodded and took deep breaths. They had made the decision and were going to follow through with it. The plan was to find the ginger girl as fast as possible and take back Lucy's pokemon. After they ran back out of the building, they were going to make a break for the east exit of the city and hopefully be home free.

"On three," Billy said and walked up to the door. He put his hand on the handle and started turning it, "One," the older kids lined up behind him. "Two," he twisted the knob and leaned his shoulder on it, "three!"

All three kids charged through the door and were completely surprised by what they saw. "What the," Drago started and then turned to another part of the room.

No one inside the first floor of the building had yet to notice the three children that ran inside their metal door. One of the women was wearing a white tank top with a sports bra underneath and she had neon green short shorts on. She was bent over a speaker changing the blasting music that filled the room.

What looked like it was normally a base of some kind, was covered in flashing strobe lights and streamers. The music blaring had three people dancing along to as they talked to each other. The boss was gone along with their entire battalion, if there was ever a time for a party, it was now.

The three kids stood there speechless as one of the men stabbed a beer and started chugging the entire thing. His eyes opened wide as he saw the children and he choked on the alcohol, spitting it across the room.

_Crap,_ Billy was thinking about sneaking past the partiers and trying to find the pokeballs on their own but they'd been spotted before he could inform the others of his plan.

"What are you doing in here!?" The man shouted and the two next to him that were laughing at him for choking on the booze spun around and also panicked. The black haired boy realized his plan was flawed because the men reached to their waists and put their hands on the red balls that were there already.

**A/n Next time we get some battles! Hope you enjoyed and tell me what you think or what you****'****re expecting down below.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

"Give me back my pokemon!" Lucy screamed as the blonde girl near the speaker turned off the music.

"What?!" The taller man in the middle of the room asked angrily. He grasped his two pokeballs and held them in one hand, waiting for an explanation before he broke loose. The blonde woman in neon shorts walked over to the other three, still wearing their work suits.

Now that the kids were up close to the four guards for the first time, they could really see who they were up against. The man who was doing all the talking and was chugging the beer when they walked in, was one of the tallest men they'd ever seen. He was almost seven feet tall and despite his height, was not lanky in the least. His bulk made him look almost as intimidating as the man on his left who was almost a foot shorter, but had rolled up his sleeves to dance and the kids could all see his huge muscles.

_Guess we__'__re not winning this without our pokemon,_ Billy had thought that maybe Lucy would be able to take out all the enemies without their help but even the women looked more built than normal girls. The blonde woman was probably around thirty, ten years older than the red head who was looking nervously at the kids in front of her. Her blonde hair extended down to the bottom of her shoulder-blades and she had one pink highlight that she tucked behind her ear when staring into Drago's eyes.

The little blonde boy became nervous when the woman was staring at him like that and Lucy stepped in front of him and growled at her. She saw that the woman had three pokemon on her belt and said, "I just want my pokemon back. Give them to me and no one gets hurt."

"You kids are unlucky," the black man stated stepping in front of the taller one. "If our commanders and associates were here, we would have had to arrest you." The man snapped his head hard to the left and then to the right, making loud cracking sounds as he did.

Without waiting, Lucy cracked her neck in a similar fashion but then backflipped where she stood and stared back into the black man's cold eyes. "Who're the unlucky ones?" She had her left hand on her pokeball at her waist and Billy did too but Drago had already taken two of them off and held them in his hands.

"What do you mean?" the orange haired girl asked. She looked no older than twenty and was the same height as the young lady in front of her with darker red hair. "Your pokemon?"

Lucy's gaze moved slowly towards the woman and then looked down at her waist where the ginger girl was hovering her hands over two pokeballs. The woman saw where the girl was looking and started sweating, "These are mine."

"NO THEY ARE NOT!" Lucy screamed but the blonde woman stepped in front of her younger comrade as Lucy took a step forwards.

"Get upstairs," she started. "I'll be up in a few minutes, just have to take care of some pests first."

"If we can handle this right now, then we don't need to…" the orange haired teenager started. She was actually nineteen but she showed such talent as a trainer that they promoted her and gave her decently strong pokemon that she leveled up pretty quick on her own.

Before she could finish her sentence, the shorter man, who was still a foot taller than her, grabbed her by the arm and started pulling her. "Let's go Ren." He turned her around and they walked after the tall man who was already heading to the staircase.

"Opal is right," the taller man stated as he walked towards the staircase's entrance. "We need to report this to the boss right away, and he'll only be on the secret frequency waves right now. There's no way to reach him on his phone right now."

"Why would we report this to the boss?" she asked fearing their brown haired leader. Both of the men were bald although her black squad member shaved, while the other was naturally bald.

"Even if we can handle this," the tall man opened the door and let the others walk through as he closed it behind him, "any invasion on our premises has to be reported or it will be our heads on spikes. All we need to do is tell him that some kids came in spouting nonsense and that's all. No point in getting killed over nothing." He walked through the door and closed it behind him.

"Slowking, Whiscash, go," the blonde woman released two of her pokemon and the kids reached for their own but Lucy raised her arm and stopped them.

"She's mine," the woman was staring at Drago again making the kid walk backwards unknowingly but at Lucy's words the woman turned to her.

"You can't let them tell Giovanni we're here," Lucy started. "I'll hold this one here, go chase after the others."

"But Lucy," Drago started. The twelve year old grabbed his arm however and started pulling him towards the door in a half-run.

"She'll be fine, trust her," Billy stated looking away from the auburn girl. He had trust in her abilities and knew that Drago should as well.

"Don't think I'll just let you do that," the woman cackled and shouted, "Water pulse Whiscash," the blue pokemon that emerged from one of her pokeballs jumped up in the air and rings of water shot out from its head towards the two boys running for the staircase.

"Double kick," the blonde woman turned in time to see the red light that emerged from the girl's pokeball turn into a Hitmonlee. It jumped over fast to where Whiscash was using its move and kicked it twice, making the pokemon roll backwards and slam into a couch, knocking it back into the wall.

The woman looked back towards the door to the stairwell and saw the door closing, the kids were gone. _Shit, the others are going to rag on me for this one later._ Focusing on something she could control, the woman looked forwards at the girl and waited for her to throw another pokemon. She already had two out and although she was fine with defeating the girl with her whole power, she wanted the child to know that she could win without breaking the rules of a normal pokemon match. When she looked down however, she started laughing hysterically. "That's it?" she laughed sarcastically, "You only have one and you thought you could take us all on," she stopped laughing as the younger girl started.

Lucy stopped her laughs at once and grinned, "I only need one to beat you." The blonde woman started twitching, her nose scrunched up and she snarled.

"Slowking, use disable," the pokemon put up a finger and it shone, making Hitmonlee shine too.

_That means I can__'__t use double kick for a while. _"Rolling kick," Lucy called out and her pokemon started rolling in midair as it shot off towards the pink pokemon and then extended a leg letting it come down hard on the pokemon's pointy crowned skull. Hitmonlee flipped back and landed, bouncing on its feet, ready for another attack.

"Magnitude!" Lucy turned to where the other blonde's pokemon was and the water type started vibrating, causing the ground to start shaking as well. A crack appeared and kept cracking the floor as it moved towards Hitmonlee and the ground exploded around it shooting rocks and cement everywhere. The dust settled and Lucy saw an outline through the rubble.

"Hitmonlee are you okay?" she asked and the outline jumped through the smoke and landed in front of its master, slightly out of breath. _Really wish I had one of those pokedexes right about now._ She not only wanted to see how healthy her own pokemon was, but how high of a level those other two pokemon were.

"Slowking, use confusion," the blonde woman yelled and they both turned to where the pink pokemon was last. Both of them went wide eyed as they saw the unconscious pokemon lying on the ground. "What?!" As the woman started to think that the girl's pokemon might be stronger than she thought, the girl started thinking the opposite of the woman's.

_If I could one hit take down one of her pokemon, then I can do this. Three won__'__t be too hard,_ she grinned and shouted, "Hitmonlee use double kick on Whiscash," the pokemon with strong legs started running forwards but froze and twitched unable to do anything. _Crap I forgot about disable._

"Electabuzz come out," the woman shouted not caring how fair the match would be anymore. Losing was beyond an embarrassment, it was not allowed. "Use magnitude again Whiscash," this time when the water type began shaking, it was much less than the time before and when Hitmonlee was hit by the vibrations it only made him wince before regaining itself.

The yellow pokemon that emerged next to the Whiscash also flinched after getting shaken by the water pokemon's attack. Although Lucy noticed, Opal didn't seem to care at all. "Electabuzz, use swift," the electric pokemon held out its arms and stars started shooting from them, slamming into and around Hitmonlee so there was nowhere for the fighting type to dodge.

"Hang in there," Lucy shouted holding her arms in front of her face as some stray attacks were hitting her. Usually a trainer would be far enough behind his or her pokemon that they wouldn't be hit but it wasn't a large building and the first floor was very cramped with all the tables, furniture, and cabinets around the room. _It__'__s not worth the risk to use high jump kick, and if I try double kick again it still might not be working._ "Use brick break on Whiscash," she shouted, _if her pokemon really are a lower level than mine, the double kick from before combined with this should__…_

Her Hitmonlee slammed its foot down hard after sprinting towards the Whiscash. The ground beneath it collapsed inwards and created a tiny crater that the part water and part ground type laid unmoving.

With no hesitation the blonde trainer shouted, "Thunderpunch." Hitmonlee had just finished slamming its foot down and turned its gaze to the left just in time to see a sparking fist slam into its torso.

"Hitmonlee!" the fourteen year old girl shouted. Her pokemon was tossed backwards and slammed into the speaker near the wall, shattering it and then her pokemon fell to the ground, face down.

"Hahaha, I have to give you credit girl," the woman cackled. "I didn't expect such an interesting fight," she looked into the small crater and saw that her second to last pokemon definitely wasn't getting back up. "However," she continued in a mock sad tone, "I think it's about time we finished this. Electabuzz, use thunderpunch on the girl," the pokemon frowned and looked like it didn't want to but couldn't disobey its master and charged electricity in its fist.

_No, it can__'__t end like this,_ "Hitmonlee get up, please get up," she shouted over at her collapsed pokemon near the wall.

"After that last hit, do you really think your pokemon can still stand, let alone fight?!" Opal scoffed and then watched with glee as her pokemon charged the younger girl.

"Hitmon," the two female trainers froze and turned their heads to the pile of rubble in the corner.

_It can__'__t be._

_ Please, please, _"HELP!" Lucy shouted ducking her head into her arms and curling up as the fist was heading straight for her. She heard a thud and moved her arms, opening her eyes to see a leg extended in front of her face, where Electabuzz was standing a second before. _He used high jump kick without me telling him to,_ she wondered as her pokemon landed on the ground and struggled to stay on its feet.

The yellow pokemon was thrown so hard into the nearby wall that a hole was created with the pokemon's top half through it and the bottom half sticking out on the side they were on. The walls looked like normal walls but there was a brick foundation on the outside and when Electabuzz pulled itself back into the building, the girl saw that her pokemon had shot the other through both walls and she could see the darkness outside being illuminated by the lights in the building. "Thank you," Lucy said helping her pokemon stand and it looked at her and nodded.

The brown fighting type then took a few steps towards the electric pokemon and stopped. They met gazes and waited for commands.

"Brick break!"

"Thunderpunch!"

Both pokemon started charging at the other and foot met hand at the same time. Hitmonlee pushed into the attack and Electabuzz pushed right back until the sparking energy at the end of the yellow pokemon's fist exploded throwing both pokemon backwards landing at the feet of their trainers. "Are you okay?" Lucy asked leaning down and shaking her pokemon but this time it wasn't moving. "You did great," she recalled her friend and looked forwards at the blonde girl.

"Get up Electabuzz," she kicked her pokemon but it moaned and passed out on the floor. She continued kicking it for a few more tries and then shouted, "Slowking, Whiscash, get up," none of her pokemon were moving but she saw that the younger girl called hers back and sighed. "Come back you weaklings," she held out her pokeballs and recalled her minions.

"A pokemon is only as weak as its master," Lucy started as she walked towards the blonde woman. She cracked her neck again and then interlocked her fingers and cracked them towards the female bodyguard.

"Don't think yourself so strong," the woman laughed taking a step away from the girl and then regaining some composure and getting in a fighting stance, "We've all been trained by the boss's right hand man himself. We won't be defeated so…" she was interrupted by a foot right in her face as Lucy jumped towards her.

The girl slammed her stronger foot, the right, into the woman's face and then twisted in midair, pushing her head straight to the ground. A loud 'Bam,' sounded throughout the room and Lucy moved her foot away to see the woman in neon shorts knocked out on the floor beneath her. "Just shut up already," she said and started walking towards the stairwell. She grabbed her arm that was hit by the swift attack and was limping on her right leg since the other was damaged during one of the Whiscash's magnitudes.

She grabbed the handle and pulled it open, looking up the winding staircase. _I__'__m coming you guys, I__'__m so close._ Lucy just hoped that her friends were able to take on the other three without her help.

**A/n Hope you enjoyed. Tell me what you think and any predictions you might have. *Look below for answer to a possible question.**

**Just in case you were wondering, Opal****'****s pokemon****'****s levels.**

**Slowking: 27**

**Whiscash: 31**

**Electabuzz: 34**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

As soon as Billy and Drago got through the stairwell's doors, they heard footsteps on the stairs high above them. "Dude they're going to alert the boss, we need to stop them."

"Already on it," Billy pulled out one of his pokeballs and released his Feraligatr into the cramped stairwell. "Use surf," he shouted.

"Wait what? Hold on," Drago started yelling frantically as the ground beneath him got covered in rapidly increasing amounts of water. The water kept growing and moved past the stairs much faster than they could sprint up and continued to rise.

"Did you hear that?" the black guard asked the taller one. All three of them went to the edge of the winding stairs and peered over looking to the bottom floor. They were already almost three floors up but a giant wave was flying up towards them at speeds they couldn't outrun.

"Brace yourselves," the tall man shouted and jumped away from the edge that he was peeking over, grabbing the railing leading up the stairs. The other two didn't move in time and water swept over the edge and knocked them down the stairs they were climbing and bounced them into the next wall. Within a few more seconds, the wave stopped increasing and had everyone inside of it.

"Feraligatr, try to push them back down here with the water," the pokemon wasn't used to such a weird command and had never tried changing the current inside the wave before. Nonetheless it obeyed its master and tried to flush the enemies down the stairs back to the first floor.

Drago looked up and realized that they were only safe because Billy had called out his Pidgeot at the last second and had it continually using wing attack to keep a small bubble of air around them. _Damn that was some quick thinking,_ Drago mentally complimented his friend as he looked around on all sides of him the water that was trying to push in.

"Don't let up Pidgeot," the bird squawked in acknowledgement and continued spinning and flapping its wings as hard as it could to keep water from collapsing in on them.

The orange haired girl, Ren, was being pulled down the water and couldn't stop herself until an arm reached out and grabbed her. She looked through the wave and saw her dark skinned companion grasping her left arm with his and using his right arm to hold onto the second story's door. He pushed it open as hard as he could while using his shoulder and knocked the door open, tumbling into the second floor with the girl. Water rushed into the room and dispersed from the staircase, filling the second floor with a few inches.

"Guys, get back up here," the two trainers looked outside into the staircase and saw that the water had gone back down. They ran back out and looked up the stairs and around the corner where their squad leader was waving for them to join him.

The three of them heard a shout, "Nidorino, use horn attack," and at the same time they heard another voice, slightly lower shout, "Thunder!" Before they could comprehend what was happening, the staircase between the second and third floor exploded in a flash of yellow light. A purple pokemon was spinning using its horn as a ram and smashed straight through the floor, electricity sparking around it.

"Watch it, you almost hit Nidorino," Drago told his Raichu which scratched its head and said 'Rai' in an apologetic tone. Billy was thankful for his friend's worried tone as they ran up the stairs with all their called out pokemon.

"Use the elevator, I'll be waiting up here." The tallest guard shouted and went into the third floor's doorway to wait for the others to come out on the other side.

The other two trainers looked down the stairs and saw a small army of pokemon running up. "Let's go," the black man turned and ran back into the second floor which was a training ground just like the third. They usually had nothing in the room to make it a good place for battles but at the moment there was still some water left on the ground that had nowhere to go. It had spread out through the room and left everything wet.

The ginger girl chased after him before hearing, "Stop!" They turned around and saw the two boys at the entrance of the room. "Let's get them," the black haired boy shouted but the thirteen year old grabbed him and he stopped.

"You go to the third floor," Drago was grinning and pointed down at a puddle on the ground. Billy noticed it too and smiled back at his friend.

"Got it," he knew his friend had a plan and he walked over to his Feraligatr and asked, "Can you jump that gap?" He pointed at the broken staircase that Nidorino broke through before.

The huge water pokemon laughed, "Gatr, gatr, gatr," as if saying that it was too easy and grabbed Billy gently putting the boy in his arms and leaping in the air to the midway point of the stairs up to the third floor.

"Come back Nidorino," Billy called and a red light shot back to the second floor and pulled his friend back into the ball. Pidgeot flew in the space in the center of all the stairs that went from the ground floor all the way to the roof and nodded at its master showing it didn't need to come back yet. He looked up at the closed door to the third floor and walked towards it, expecting the man inside to be ready for him.

As Billy opened the door, the man was not expecting him and was walking towards the opposite wall where there was an elevator. He heard the door open behind him and spun around to face a kid almost half his size standing in between a hovering Pidgeot and the Feraligatr that was even taller than he was. "So, you've come." The man reached for his pokeballs and tossed them in the air before Billy could respond. "Umbreon, Banette, you're up."

The boy pulled out his pokedex and frowned, their levels were higher than his own pokemon's but not by much.

"Unlike the females of our platoon," the tall man started, "my associate and I have trained these pokemon since we caught them ourselves. So which pokemon is that girl downstairs looking for? The Hitmonchan or Hitmontop?"

"Both," Billy let his pokemon step in front of him and watched the other man do the same.

"Hmmm. Yes, they did come at the same time to give to our new recruit." The taller man said thoughtfully. "It only makes sense two very similar pokemon came from the same trainer."

"Enough talk, time to fight," Billy pointed at his Feraligatr, "Let's do this…"

sc

On the second floor, Drago was walking closer to the two trainers in front of him. Their suits were soaked through and it was making it uncomfortable for them. The girl in the back was walking further and further away, making her way towards the elevator without letting the little boy know.

"This suit is restricting my movements," the black guard said and Drago thought he was going to unbutton the shirt and take it off but instead the man just grabbed onto the front of it with his right hand and pulled to the right, tearing off the white shirt in one swoop. "Much better," he said as he loosened the tie still around his neck and pulled it off as well.

Drago had stopped walking forwards and his Raichu stopped at his side. Both master and pokemon were staring awestruck at the person in front of them. If there was a human type pokemon, it would have been this man because under the shirt you could barely call him a person. His muscles were so big that the veins on them had veins themselves. _It__'__s amazing his suit hides it so well,_ Drago thought as he hesitated where he stood. The self-defense lessons Lucy gave him would not be coming in handy if he wound up having to fight the monster before him.

"I can see you're impressed," the man said but Raichu took a step towards him and growled. "Usually I start out fighting the pokemon myself to test its abilities, but after seeing what your Raichu can do, I'd rather just leave it up to my pets here." The black man reached to his waist and pulled off one of the balls. "Go Dragonair."

He held out the ball so that the red light could emerge from it, releasing a long blue and white pokemon. _Dragonair?_ Drago had never heard of one or seen one before and pointed his pokedex at it. It was level forty-five, three levels below his Raichu. "Go Houndoom," the man called out and released another one of his pokemon.

"Hey what are you doing?" Drago shouted at the man as he reached for one of his other pokeballs.

"You think this is a game?" the man scoffed at the kid and shouted, "Ember and twister," the black dog with horns that appeared shot flames out of its mouth and hit Drago's Raichu at the same time as a funnel of wind that was spinning fast slammed into the orange electric mouse. Dragonair snaked around the floor and came back to rest next to the black dog with the orange face.

"My turn, thunder wave," he shouted and pointed at the longer opponent.

"Use agility," the man called out too late and Raichu's attack hit the blue and white pokemon. After it was hit it tried to start moving really fast but static flew out from it and it stayed still. "Stupid kid, that didn't hurt my Dragonair at all," he laughed.

The thunder wave had done exactly what he planned: the puddles in the room covered a lot of the floor and both enemy pokemon had feet in the same puddle. The Houndoom sparked a little too and the boy grinned, "It wasn't meant to," Drago had pulled off two more pokeballs but he slowly put them back at his waist. He looked at his friend who looked back at him in his eyes, "Can you handle this?" The pokedex showed that Houndoom was five levels below his forty-eight Raichu, but two on one weren't good odds.

The black man in front of him was staring angrily at the boy, _He__'__s not going to fight me full force, he thinks me a child?!_ "Houndoom use…"

"Raichu use agility," Drago called out fast before the other man could finish.

"Faint attack," the man finished and his black dog pokemon disappeared and came up from behind the unsuspecting Raichu, trying to attack its back. The mouse was moving too fast however and dove out of the way to avoid the attack.

"Great job, now use thunderbolt on his Dragonair," Drago continued fluidly attacking and giving his pokemon a small time to rest between each attack. A bolt of lighting flew from the static pokemon that slammed into the long blue one. Drago looked down at his pokedex and saw the health bar move lower and lower, _Yes a crit!_ the bar went to nothing and as he looked up he saw the pokemon was struggling to keep its eyes open and then closed them and passed out.

"Houndoom use faint attack again," the man did not pause to look at his knocked out pokemon and just called out his next move. This time when Houndoom appeared behind Raichu, it connected with its mark and Raichu tumbled forwards before front flipping and spinning to face the pokemon that was now between him and his master.

_This is insane, he__'__s taking me out with only one pokemon,_ the black man had veins popping on his forehead he was so enraged. He glared at the boy who was smirking and then towards his Houndoom that was now closer to the boy than the kid's Raichu was. _Fuck you kid,_ "Houndoom use ember on the kid!"

All three of the others looked at the bodyguard with shocked looks but Houndoom turned its head slowly and with a pained look it shot flames towards the boy. Drago sprinted to his right and dive rolled away from the flames that felt scorching. After just sliding by he looked up and saw the dark type pokemon right in front of his face.

"Bite his fucking head off!" The black man shouted in a low voice and Houndoom opened its mouth. Drago tried backing up but he fell on his butt and looked in sheer terror as the dog was about to kill him.

"Ahhhhh!" he screamed as the pokemon snapped towards him for the kill. Suddenly a large bolt of lightning came out of the ceiling and slammed down into the Houndoom. Drago's eyes went wide as he watched the dog-pokemon spas out and then collapse with swirls over its eyes. "You used thunder?" Drago asked in disbelief as he stood up and looked halfway across the room to where his Raichu was. The pokemon nodded, "You saved me. Thank you."

The pokemon smiled for a split-second and then turned towards the guard who was backing up slowly away from the kid. Drago turned towards the man who held his hands up in front of him, _I don__'__t lose, shit! There__'__s no way I could even get close to that kid before getting electrocuted,_ "You got me. You win kid."

Drago took a step towards the intimidating black man and his Raichu ran up alongside him. The man was sweating profusely and stumbled but kept his balance and remained on his feet. All of a sudden a smile formed on his face and he held out a hand towards Drago. "It was a good fight kid," Drago ignored the outstretched hand and took another step towards the guard. "Stop. Stop!" the man screamed at Drago, his voice cracking as he did. "You don't really want to stoop to my level do you?" He was pulling out the big guns now, "A despicable thug like me, you don't want to become that." He looked towards the pokemon but Raichu was giving him the same glare that the boy was.

"You're right," Drago said stopping his walk across the room. He was only twenty feet in front of the man now, any further would be dangerously close. "I'm sure if Billy was here he'd say, 'let him live and change.' If my female friend downstairs were here she'd probably knock you out and laugh about it, but that's all.

The man started to calm down and smiled at the thirteen year old blonde kid in front of him. The kid's voice got as low as it could get as his eyes met with the guard, "But I don't give people second chances. Two Solar grunts in Rustboro tried forcefully drafting me and I killed them, solely because they were following orders from some higher up." He never even told Billy about what happened to the men who tried to draft him the first time but he felt it wasn't important.

"What are you talking about?" the black man slowly took another step back but Drago didn't move forwards that time.

"Just like Billy, I lost everything in this war." Drago didn't notice that far behind him, a girl around his age had limped her way up the stairs and was entering the room. "My little brother," Drago growled, "my little sisters," his eyes were burning with fury as he glared at the black man. "My parents," he snapped his head to look into the man's eyes. "Your boss orchestrated all of it! That makes you guilty," he snarled and pointed towards the man.

Raichu looked up at the furious look in his master's eyes and that made him even angrier at the man who had tried to kill Drago. It turned and growled, little sparks shooting out of its cheeks when it heard a command that made him falter and look up at his master.

"Thunder," Drago called out and the black man fell backwards before stumbling to his feet and holding out his hands.

"No, please! Just stop now, you don't need to," the man was stumbling towards Drago shaking his hands in front of him until he was ten feet away and then started sprinting, one last ditch effort to kill the kid.

He pulled his right arm back and let it fly towards the kid before freezing in his spot and getting zapped by enough electricity to power the building for a day. His skin was charred and he collapsed to the floor, not moving. The young boy stared at the man on the floor in front of him for a few more seconds before bending down and getting on a knee. "Hey Raichu," he started and the orange pokemon looked away from the dead human in front of him. People weren't as durable as pokemon and it didn't take much to end one's life. "I'm sorry I asked you to do that. This isn't a game we're playing and if we had let him live there would have been a lot more _good _people hurt or killed by him." Raichu nodded, still feeling bad about what he did but at least having something to make it feel a little better.

"Come on," he held out a pokeball and called back his friend, feeling ashamed in himself for snapping and making his friend kill a man. Though as he thought back on it, even if he didn't snap, the man needed to die. He turned around with a serious face on as he thought about what just happened, _I need to go help Billy._ He started running forwards paying attention to the task at hand when he saw Lucy just standing there at the entrance of the room.

They both stood there for a solid twenty seconds making eye contact and freezing where they were. The blonde kid saw the destruction in the staircase behind Lucy and remembered that he had helped destroy it and would need to go up the elevator like the other guard.

He turned and started walking towards the other side of the room, _She probably thinks I__'__m a monster._ Drago tried not to look back but he could hear footsteps coming closer and knew she was catching up to him. _Why wouldn__'__t she? It__'__s her pokemon we__'__re going to get, maybe she__'__ll run right past and get on the elevator herself, I__'__ll take the next one._

The auburn haired girl sprinted the distance between her and Drago as the boy slowly walked away and she wrapped both arms around him, "It's alright Drago. You did what you had to," the boy was still facing away from the girl whose arms were around his chest. He could feel her warmth behind him and her words dug into him like knives.

"I know," he responded. The girl heard how detached his voice sounded and she let go of him as he kept walking towards the elevator, "I feel horrible anyway but the time to sit around crying about it is later." She walked behind Drago who went straight up to the elevator doors, "Right now we need to get your pokemon back."

**A/n Hey everyone! I'm back from Disney and am going to get back into my normal schedule. I just got a full scholarship into my top college so now I don't have to focus on school work as much and can hopefully update even faster XD. Hope you enjoyed and leave a review telling me any predictions or thoughts.**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

"Let's do this," Billy shouted and decided to start off by using a move that his Feraligatr had recently learned that finished a lot of enemies in one hit. "Ready, use slash," he looked up at his bird pokemon, "use quick attack."

"Banette, step forwards," the floating black ghost pokemon hovered in front of its opponents and stayed motionless.

_It__'__s going to be over before it even started,_ Billy was already mentally celebrating when he watched in confusion as his original pokemon's claw flew straight threw the ghost and didn't damage it at all. Pidgeot followed suit and shot straight through the pokemon without touching it and coming out on the other side.

The tall bald guard didn't smirk or laugh at the boy's dumbstruck face he just opened his mouth and said to his level forty six Umbreon, "Use shadow ball." A dark cloud appeared in front of it and got bigger before shooting out and hitting the bird pokemon that was trying to fly back to its master.

"Feraligatr, try slash again," Billy called out and the huge blue pokemon started swiping its arm through the ghost in front of it over and over again.

"Banette, use night shade," the ghost was tired of the pitiful attacks and grinned evilly before making a darkness surround Billy and his pokemon. Banette's face appeared in the shadows and vibrated making Feraligatr moan and grab its head as it fell to one knee. Pidgeot was trying to stand back up but after the night shade it fell to the ground and passed out.

"Nidorino," Billy was quick to recall his friend and call out another. _What__'__s happening, none of my attacks can hit it, is it invincible?_

"From the confused look on your face I can tell you are an inexperienced trainer who thinks he can just storm in here and defeat me easily." The bald man said as he glared at the insolent child in front of him. "I could easily tell you what your mistake is, but that would be foolish of me, instead I'll finish you quickly.

"Enough talking!" Billy shouted.

"Umbreon, use sand-attack," the black pokemon on all fours had yellow circles around certain points of its body and slanted eyes that were focused on the new pokemon. It kicked up a cloud of sand that got in Nidorino's eyes and made it hard for him to see.

"Double kick on Banette, water gun on Umbreon," the boy called out and saw his purple pokemon able to ignore the sand in its eyes and charge forwards at the ghost. Just like all the attacks before, this time the pokemon flew straight through the ghost pokemon and crashed to the ground behind it.

For the first time all match, Billy was able to land a hit as the jet of water slammed into Umbreon and knocked it backwards. The four legged black pokemon managed to stay on its feet and shook off the water when the attack finished.

"Banette use faint attack on Nidorino, you too Umbreon," the man commanded and the room was filled with darkness as the two pokemon appeared behind Billy's purple pokemon and attacked him at the same time. The boy didn't even need to look at his pokedex to know that his friend was knocked out.

_Down to just Feraligatr and Ivysaur,_ he pulled out his last pokeball and let loose his grass pokemon. "I see no need for me to be worried," the man stated and continued, "so I'll let you know that if you had had your Nidorino use its last attack on Umbreon instead of Banette, you might have knocked him out in one shot instead of wasting its life. Use confuse ray," he called out to his Umbreon and it shot a translucent beam at Feraligatr that started circling the monster until it became dizzy and started stumbling around.

Billy looked down at his pokedex and saw that his level thirty Ivysaur was fifteen levels below Banette, and sixteen under Umbreon. _I need to stall him, and come up with a plan._ "How? What makes the two of your pokemon different?"

"I know you are stalling, but the truth is that I've made up my mind to kill you, so it doesn't really matter what you know does it?" The man closed his mouth and watched Billy's scared reaction with a small bit of satisfaction. "One of my pokemon is dark, the other is ghost, they both have types that they are immune to. My Banette for example can't get hurt by normal and fighting type moves, the only ones you've been throwing at it."

"Feraligatr use surf," the huge monster heard the command and moved but wound up punching itself in the face in its confusion.

"Haha, you should wait until I'm finished talking to die," the man laughed and Billy looked at him even more fearfully. _What am I going to do, Feraligatr is almost in the red and Ivysaur wouldn__'__t be able to beat one, let alone two of these guys._ "Just like there are moves that wouldn't hurt my pokemon, there are ones that would hurt it more than usual that are super effective, I'm sure you've noticed this in some of your battles."

The twelve year old did know what the man was speaking of and nodded his head quickly. "Well my Umbreon is super weak against fighting, so the fact that I was put against you and not that girl you were with who only uses fighting types is probably a good thing. However, even if I was put against her, she wouldn't have been able to touch Banette, which is why these two are the perfect combo."

"What else is super effective against your pokemon?" Billy asked straight out and the man twitched, feeling belittled by the boy who thought he was toying with him.

"I'm finished talking, it's time…"

Billy was saved by a voice that sounded from the opposite side of the room, "Hey I'm here," the nineteen year old saw her leader and then saw Billy standing across from him, both with their pokemon out already.

The man turned from Billy and looked to his subordinate, "Where is Tom?"

"He's downstairs fighting the other boy, he sent me ahead." The tall man nodded at her and thought for a second about the chances of whether his friend was able to handle the boy with the Raichu.

"You can just wait there, I'll be finished with this in a second." The squad leader turned back to the boy, "Now it's time to end… What?!" He looked across the battlefield where Billy had let back out his unconscious pokemon and was giving them medicine.

As soon as the man turned to face Ren, Billy pulled off his pack and gave revives to his two pokemon. He was saving a bunch of them for his journey after they got Lucy's pokemon, but there was no time to think and he just did it. Before the man turned back around he had out super potions and gave them to his friends as well.

It was during the second super potion that the enemy turned back and shouted at Billy, but at that point the boy started standing and put his pack back on. "You made a big mistake," Billy stated, feeling confident again as his four pokemon surrounded him.

Pidgeot flew right above his head, Ivysaur was on his right and Nidorino was on his left, and standing behind him towering above the boy so that its head was even above the hovering bird pokemon, was his Feraligatr that tossed its head back and roared loudly.

"How foolish of me," the man regained his composure and grinned at the boy, "but I thought you to be stupider than you really are. Congratulations, it still doesn't mean you'll be able to defeat me."

"Ivysaur, poison powder, Pidgeot, sand attack, Feraligatr scary face, Nidorino focus energy." The boy called out his moves in rapid succession and his pokemon scattered.

The bird pokemon was fastest and flew forwards in a dive, swooping its wings up and covering the enemies in sand. "Use shadow ball on the grass one and Banette use will o wisp on the bird."

Before Banette could move, purple powder dropped from the bulb on Ivysaur's back and made the ghost pokemon glow purple. Feraligatr's face appeared in the room and made Umbreon falter and use its shadow ball attack slower. Banette was able to ignore the scary face and shot a burst of flames at the bird pokemon above it causing it to glow red and small embers caught on its feathers, constantly hurting it.

"Now Nidorino use double kick on Umbreon," the boy called out and his purple friend charged forwards having focused his energy. Before the pokemon could connect, a ball of purple darkness shot out from Umbreon and flew across the battlefield where it hit the green Ivysaur. As soon as the ball was away from Umbreon's body, Nidorino collided with it and kicked twice hard into the darker four legged creature. Umbreon slammed into the ground and dug a trench in the floor towards the back of the room.

The room Billy and his opponent were in had a section made for training, and half the room was set up with a large table and televisions on the walls. Umbreon smashed straight through the divider of the floor and smashed into one of the flat screens on the wall.

The twelve year old looked into that section and saw a map on the wall with little red pins stuck in cities and areas all over it. As he was distracted for a split second, the other man turned to his subordinate and shouted, "Get on the phone with the boss now!" He had not given up on his fight but his Umbreon was not getting up and it was better to take precautions.

Billy looked at his Ivysaur and saw it unmoving on the floor, _Damn, one hit was all it took._ He looked up at his Pidgeot which kept flinching and pulled out a burn heal from his bag. "Now use faint attack on the Nidorino," the tall man shouted and his pokemon relentlessly attacked Billy's pokemon.

One after the other, the kid's pokemon were attacked by Banette and Billy was failing to attack successfully. All of Nidorino's attacks were useless and his four legged purple friend went down without dealing any more damage. "Pidgeot use aerial ace," the bird flew down insanely fast and swiped the ghost pokemon actually knocking it down this time. As the bird pokemon was lifting back up into the air the man used another will o wisp and burned Billy's pokemon for a second time. This caused Billy's bird pokemon to fall to the ground and collapse as the boy missed another water gun aimed at Banette.

"Faint attack," the man shouted and put Billy's pokemon down into the red.

"Surf!" Billy screamed and a tidal wave appeared that crashed down on top of the other man's pokemon. When he looked at his pokedex he saw that his enemy was down to the red as well.

The man could see his pokemon faltering and muttered under his breath before turning around and seeing his underling still waiting in front of the elevator. "What are you doing? Call Giovanni now!" He turned back to the boy and took a deep breath before sighing, "I really messed up on this one, but it's not over yet. Banette use curse," he couldn't risk a miss or a move that didn't finish his enemy so he went with the sure thing.

The ghost pokemon formed a needle in midair, a thick needle and plunged it into its own chest. Banette fell to the ground and stopped moving, but as it did, Feraligatr grasped its own chest and fell to the ground too. "What's wrong?" he asked his friend but Feraligatr didn't respond and just fell face first on the floor, unconscious.

"You did a great job guys," Billy reached down and returned his last pokemon while thanking all his unconscious ones. When he looked up he saw the man was walking towards him slowly. "What are you…"

"My pokemon may be out cold, but so are yours," Billy reached behind him but the other man continued, "By the time another revive is out of your bag and in your hands I will have closed the distance between us and snapped your neck."

"Wait," the man turned and saw the nineteen year old holding one of her pokeballs. "Why don't you call the boss, I can handle him with my pokemon." Ren looked at Billy scared for both of them.

The man spun and slapped the girl across the face. She fell to the ground and her orange hair became all messy and tangled. "Obey my commands girl or you'll be killed. Learn how we do things around here or we'll find someone else who can do your job just as easily and put you down." This made the girl scramble to her feet and start running back for the side room.

The tall light-skinned man looked back at the little boy who was walking backwards and held out a hand to the kid. "This is it for you," he sprinted forwards and Billy backed into a wall. The boy ducked just as the man's foot flew over his head and crashed into the concrete wall meant to withstand pokemon battles. The wall didn't even dent but the clank was loud enough that Billy knew had it collided he'd be dead.

The boy dove under the tall man's legs and sprinted from behind him to where the girl was walking. "Stop," he yelled and the girl in the side room looked over to the kid before remembering the look on her leader's face. She reached into a box near the unconscious Umbreon and pulled out a black radio device.

Billy tried running to her but the man jumped over the kid and landed in front of him. The boy only had enough time to cross his arms as a punch aimed down at the kid's head was thrown. The leader hit the twelve year old in the middle of his arms and the kid was tossed backwards by the force of it. He could already feel large bruises forming and couldn't handle the amount of pain he was in.

The woman in the side room started running for the elevator and as she pressed the button the doors opened but her eyes went wide as she saw the two children standing in the doorway. "No," she whispered stepping back as she realized Opal and Tom were defeated by them.

"YOU!" Lucy screamed and the squad leader, who had his foot raised above Billy's bowed head, spun around and saw a girl dive out of the elevator and tackle his underling. "Give me back my pokemon!" the crazed fourteen year old shouted and punched the older girl over and over in the face before reaching down to her waist and removing the two pokeballs there.

"Impossible, there's no way both of you won your battles, where are my subordinates!" Gone was the fun beer-guzzling party man from before, now the leader was enraged that his squad, the number one squad in Fallarbor that got their own vacation for doing so well, was taken out by children.

"Knocked out."

"Dead." Drago responded after Lucy and the man looked at the blonde boy with surprise.

"You killed Tom?" the tall man asked and Billy turned his head towards his friend also confused.

"Yeah, now step away from my friend," Drago ordered, "he wasn't able to defeat a single one of my pokemon. I'm still stocked with comrades, while you seem to have none."

"Hmm, so you think you have the upper hand?" The man lifted his foot back over Billy's head and held it there menacingly, "Why don't we play a game?" A smile spread across his face and the three children gulped.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

"What type of game?" Drago asked slowly as he put his hands to his pokeballs. Lucy had one foot on top of the unconscious girl beneath her and was thinking about how they could get out now that she had her pokemon back.

"It's called 'leave your pokemon where you are and get out of the building or I'll kill your friend.' Sounds like fun doesn't it?" The man lowered his foot down and pressed Billy's head into the floor.

"Ahhh," Billy groaned feeling the pressure on his head being between the man's right foot and the hard floor.

"Stop!" Lucy shouted and pressed her foot on the other girl's head. "If you keep it up I'll kill her."

"Go ahead, we don't need someone as weak as her anyway," the man pressed harder on Billy's head making the kid scream louder than before.

"Wait!" Drago shouted. "I have a better idea." The man stopped pressing so hard and listened to the little blonde kid in front of him. "You are obviously bluffing because if you kill him right now, I'll have my Raichu come back out and kill you," he paused and smirked insanely, "slowly." The tall man flinched subconsciously and stared at the young kid before him. He noticed that the girl next to him was also looking at him afraid of what the boy was capable of, _oh shit he__'__s not bluffing, _"Yet, even if you did let Billy go right now, I'd probably still kill you anyway, too many people have been hurt by your kind to just let you get away with it."

"Stop talking or I'll crush his skull," The man threatened.

"No you won't," Drago responded and then continued, "none of you are actually in this for the group's cause, because the cause is insane and only benefits one man. You just like money, and staying here any longer will only get you killed."

"I'll be killed if I try to run, Giovanni has eyes and ears everywhere."

"Wear a wig, get different colored contacts, change your appearance and run away." It was time to pull out the big guns and Drago continued, "If you stay what do you think your boss will do to you when he comes back to find a wrecked base and a dead soldier. I'm pretty sure he won't be too happy with the man he left in charge." The man moved his foot away from Billy's head as the bluff obviously wasn't working anymore.

The man stared at the children thinking about his options and realizing that nothing good came from staying there any longer. He recalled his pokemon and looked forwards at the blonde kid in defeat, "All this for two pokemon," he shook his head in disbelief. "You know Giovanni will never stop looking for you three."

"Let him look," Billy said pushing himself to his feet with aching arms. "We can handle anything he dishes out." The boy walked away from the minion and stood next to his friends. Lucy looked worse for the wear and was favoring one leg while Drago had ripped his shirt diving away from the Houndoom's attack earlier. Billy's left arm was bleeding and his nose had a drop of blood coming from it but the three of them glared at the man who held out his arms in defeat and walked past them to the elevator.

As it closed behind him he thought, _those kids are insane, they have no idea who they__'__re dealing with. On a different note, I__'__m going to have to find a new line of work._

Billy looked at his friends and they stood there in silence for a few more seconds before they all started cheering and laughing. "We did it!" Drago shouted and Lucy gave him a big hug causing the boy to blush.

"You guys," she looked at the boys with joy in her eyes. "Thank you so much. Even if you aren't able to take down the Don right now, he's going to know who you are."

"Don't worry about it, we knew what we were getting ourselves into." Drago replied.

"Speak for yourself," Billy rubbed his head and laughed and the other two joined in with him. The laughter died down and Billy looked across the room and started walking.

"Where's he going?" Drago whispered to Lucy. They thought they'd be getting out of the building as soon as possible in case the girl had already called for reinforcements. She shrugged and they followed the youngest of them through a hole in the divider where they stepped into a meeting room.

There were cracks on the wall in front of them and a broken tv, plus the table was covered in loose papers and Billy finally saw what he was looking for. A small black device was still sitting out at the head of the table and he walked over, picking it up as he did. As he started messing around with it, Lucy asked, "What is that?"

"It's a radio," the girl remembered what the group had said when they were back on the first floor and looked at the device with confusion.

"So what are you doing with it?" she questioned.

Drago was starting to get nervous as Billy pressed a button and static was heard over the radio. "I thought I told you not to call back girl, we're in the middle of something," the low voice that came over the device was obviously meant for Ren, who was unconscious in the other room.

"Put Giovanni on the line," Billy stated. The other two looked at him confused at how he could possibly know that the man speaking was not Giovanni.

There was a pause on the other side of the line as the second in command pondered what to do about the mysterious voice. Billy stood completely still and the other two held their breath as the twelve year old boy turned up the volume on the radio. "Who is this?" the voice that came in over the speakers wasn't as low as the large man's that Billy remembered from in front of the skyscraper. He sounded more commanding however, the voice that came over felt like ice on the kids' skin and chills shot down their spines.

Despite the fact that just the man's voice was enough to scare him, Billy managed to speak without his voice shaking. "My name is William West. I made a promise to my friend's parents before they died," he waited for the man to say something but no reply was heard so he continued. "I told them that I would keep their daughter safe, but as long as there is this war, she'll never be able to live a peaceful life. For this reason, I will find you. When I do I'll be much stronger than I am now, and I'll kill you. When you are dead you won't be able to pull the strings of each side of the war any longer, Archie and Maxie will fight amongst themselves and your entire organization will fall apart. The war will end."

Billy stopped and panted, taking deep breaths to keep himself calm as the other two stared at him with open mouths. He just told off the most powerful man in the world and was waiting for a reply, "You've done well to figure out so much." The man started and all three kids were a little shocked that not only were they right but he was admitting it. "No one will believe you three so it doesn't matter what I say to you, I could even tell you why the war started in the first place, but I don't think I will." Over the line they heard a deep breath, "It's because you don't know why it started that you won't be able to end the war."

"What do you mean?" Drago asked, confused at how the man knew there were three of them but realizing there was no need to stay quiet any longer.

"Well, Drago Octavian Svenska," the boy took a few steps away from the receiver and fell over one of the chairs around the table. "You can take me out of the equation and you might think that that will end this war, but war is the only solution to the problem facing the region. As long as powerful people disagree on how to handle the problem there will be fighting, there will be war." The man stopped talking for a few seconds and the three could hear whimpering on the other side of the line.

Lucy started whispering, "What is," when they heard another voice over the line. Drago was still on the floor, he felt like a freight train had just slammed straight into him.

"Please no, I won't tell anyone about you Giovanni. The resistance only consisted of us three, it was a joke, no one else believed us, please!" The whimpering voice on the other side turned out to be a man crying and was pleading for his life.

Still listening to the other side of the radio the kids heard Giovanni speak again, "Use horn drill Rhydon." A scream was heard on Giovanni's side and it turned into gurgling and then silence as the whimpering stopped. "Sorry about that, you interrupted me at a bad time. William West, Drago Svenska, Lucy Smith, you three have just made my list," they could see the smirk on his face as he finished, "good luck." The phone was hung up on them and Billy was still standing there holding the radio in silence.

"He knew my last name," Drago was still stunned and the other two looked at him. Lucy remembered what he said to the black guard when they were downstairs and frowned sadly at Drago's reaction. _What happened to him?_ Her life as an orphan wasn't too bad as Lanette raised her well, but she just assumed that Drago was the same as her. _Brothers, sisters, parents, he had all those things,_ she was somewhat angry at him for not telling her, but she never asked.

The younger boy grinned and looked at his friends, "Don't let what he said get to you." Although it was obviously getting to him a lot too, "We took the first step today. It's time to move, there are probably already reinforcements on their way here."

The kids nodded and silently descended the elevator to the second floor then took the stairs back down to the first. Billy walked past the dead black man with wide eyes and looked to Drago who wouldn't meet his gaze. When they past the first floor Lucy saw that her opponent was no longer on the ground unconscious and was nowhere to be found.

They went outside and started jogging down the dark street. "Pokemon center?" Lucy asked since her and Billy were in bad shape. They had agreed not to go after the assault, but they had assumed there would be a lot more than just those four at the building. The boys looked at each other and nodded, making a line for the center and getting there by themselves.

No one was in the building and the street outside was pretty empty as well. Nurse Joy saw them and instantly her eyes bugged as she saw their clothes and faces. Billy looked the worst and was the first one to the counter, "Please." The woman nodded in silence and put the boy's pokemon in the machine.

"I'm good," Drago had given his Raichu a super potion in the elevator that brought him back to full health and he was alright. Billy took his back when they were healed and Lucy gave one of her pokemon to the woman and as she took it the girl removed the other two from her belt and released them in the lobby of the pokemon center.

Nurse Joy remembered what the girl had said a few days before when she was in the center and she recognized the two pokemon that were walking with Giovanni's parade. As she was about to say something she saw the creatures form and looked sad, but when they realized who was standing in front of them their mouths twisted into smiles and they ran forwards wrapping Lucy in hard hugs with their rough skin. "I'm back, and I will never leave you again," Lucy nuzzled her friends and the two boys smiled at the girl.

"You took those from the Don's men?" The pink haired woman behind the counter asked quietly. The kids all looked at her nervously and she nodded turning around and saying, "I didn't see you. Please, leave the center," she took out Lucy's pokeball after it healed and left it on the counter.

"But," Billy started raising a hand but Drago grabbed it and shook his head.

"We can't implicate anyone else, we'd be putting them in danger." He bowed to the back of the nurse and finished, "Thank you so much."

With that Drago left and Lucy recalled her pokemon, following him. Billy looked at Nurse Joy in sadness and left the pokemon center. _She got her pokemon back, thank God._ Nurse Joy smiled and looked up to the ceiling, _please keep them safe._

sc/1 hour earlier

"We've looked all over the valley, they're nowhere to be found," Tony walked into the room panting. He had started to slim down in the last couple of weeks but that didn't mean he was in shape yet.

Rick added, "The mountain pass is empty, the campers haven't seen them since this morning when they were acting all weird."

"Yeah they came up to me and just talked for a good twenty minutes, when have they ever done that before without battling?" Most of the people in Lanette's house shook their heads not remembering a time when they did. All the route's inhabitants were together, even those that didn't normally live there, because they were all worried about the children.

"They must've gone back to Fallarbor," the hiker Ralf said and held Francis close. "We can send in groups to look for them."

Lanette finally spoke up, "They said that they wouldn't go back there, that if they were going to they'd tell me first." A lot of the people were in the room when that happened and shook their heads, disappointed in the kids' actions.

"Hey," they all looked over to where the high pitched voice came from and walked over to Sally who was next to Drago's bed. She sniffled and handed to paper to her foster mother, "I think you should read this," with that she left the room and went outside.

Lanette held up the sheet of paper and her eyes grew wide as did everyone who could see the words, "Read it out loud," somebody said who couldn't see.

She started in a grim voice, "Dear Lanette…"

** Dear Lanette,**

**The time I spent here was short but it was the best time I****'****ve had in years. Later today we****'****re going to challenge the Don****'****s men and get back Lucy****'****s pokemon, which is why we can****'****t tell you that we****'****re leaving. We know that you would try to stop us so I****'****m writing you this letter instead of saying goodbye. I hope you find it okay and I wish everyone in the valley to stay safe and out of the war. We can****'****t tell you why we****'****re picking a fight with Giovanni, but that****'****s only because we love you and don****'****t want you all to get involved in our own selfish plans. I****'****m sorry, and I hope I see you all again someday.**

** -Drago**

**p.s. Lucy and Billy say goodbye too. **

**p.p.s. Don****'****t come looking for us, by the time you get this letter we****'****ll be miles away.**

Lanette stopped reading as the letter ended there. The page had drops of water on it already but she added her own on the parchment as well.

"What are we going to do?" One woman asked and Lanette looked up at her.

"What do you think?"

sc/normal time

"There's the exit," Drago pointed at the east gate to the city where no one seemed to be standing. "Only a little further and we're home free."

The three kids began running towards the gate and right when they were about to reach it they heard a voice shout, "STOP!" They turned around as a group to the voice they all recognized and saw a different group of people running towards them.

"No."

"We were so close."

"Crap," Drago mumbled and the other two looked at him, "I may have left a letter under my blankets." Billy sighed in exasperation and Lucy punched him in the shoulder making the boy wince. "Sorry."

"Lucy, Billy, Drago!" the short woman with black curls leading the pack ran forwards until she was standing ten meters in front of the kids.

"Don't come closer," Billy said trying to hold back tears, what he was about to say was going to hurt him.

"What are you talking about?" One of the men asked, "We need to go back to the valley now before you do something stupid."

"It's too late for that," Drago said and the woman in front gasped, _I came too late._ "The deed is done and we spoke with Giovanni, he's coming after us." Some of the people in front of them backed up a step and started whispering amongst themselves. "We all know what that means," a few of them nodded and started walking away.

Lanette took steps the opposite direction as the crowd, towards the children and said, "Why?" the kids looked at her sadly as the woman began to cry. "Just come back with us and hide in the valley like you've been doing."

"We can't," Lucy started and the woman looked at the girl's waist.

"You got your pokemon back, that's wonderful, I'm so relieved." She took another step towards the kids but they backed up two steps and got into the open gate, behind them was wilderness as far as the eye could see. "Please, I can still take care of you." Now she started speaking directly to Lucy, "You've been like a daughter to me your entire life, don't leave me."

"If I stay with you, all your other children will be in danger." Lucy turned around to hide her tears and grabbed the boys by their sleeves, "Let's go." The three of them jogged out the gate and down the path before breaking off the main road and into the forest.

"Wait, WAIT!" Lanette shouted trying to step forwards but Tony came up behind her and held her back. "Let me go after them, they're just children," she broke down and started crying.

"It's okay," the hiker looked out into the distance, "they're smart kids. They'll be alright as long as they stick together." The woman nodded and started sniffling to pull back her tears, "Don't forget what Drago said in his letter."

Lanette looked at Tony who smiled wide and was looking into the tree line, "One day, we'll see them again, I'm sure of it."

**A/n Hope you enjoyed the chapter. This was the end to the second part of the story now that the kids are out of Fallarbor. Tell me what you think so far and any predictions you have for later. See ya!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

The three children jogged at a steady pace through the woods east of Fallarbor for hours after leaving the city. At first they thought it was snowing in the area but it was far too hot and it was the middle of summer. When Drago stuck his tongue out and tasted the powder falling from the sky he choked and spit it back out. The volcano in the area was constantly releasing ash particles that the boy had tried to eat and found utterly disgusting.

Some time around three in the morning, Billy was panting too hard and stopped, resting his hands on his knees and bending his head. "Hold, up," he said between breaths and the others looked back to where the youngest was.

The older boy yawned and looked around at the trees, _chances that anyone finds us here are slim._ "Let's take more than a break this time," the others looked at him in agreement and sat down all taking deep breaths and pulling out small blankets they bought at the pokemart. It wasn't much but it was mainly to keep the falling ashes from falling on their clothes. "You guys get some rest, I'll take first watch."

"Do you really think anyone will find us?" Lucy asked skeptically.

"No," he responded, "but better safe than sorry." The red headed girl nodded in understanding and laid down on a soft patch of dirt, wrapping herself in the blanket. Billy took one last look at his friend before dropping his head back and falling asleep instantly.

Drago laughed at his exhausted friend and thought Lucy would join in with him, but he could start to hear the deep breathing of a sleeping person coming from the girl's blanket. _All alone,_ he grinned and pressed his hands against his pokeballs, happy that they were all with him.

The boy walked through the trees, making sure he didn't wander too far from the little camp but still looking around the ash covered landscape in awe._ It looks just like__…_ an image of a young girl flashed in his head. He stopped smiling and rested his head against the closest tree as he clenched his eyes shut. _It looks like death._

**Flashback (6 years ago)**

**"****Pikachu use quick attack,****" ****the small yellow mouse ran forwards and swiped the Taillow, knocking it backwards and tumbling across the grassy green front lawn. ****"****Haha, I got you,****" ****the small seven year old boy with bleach blonde hair pointed at the other boy who was only one year younger.**

** "****No fair, you****'****re older than me,****" ****the other kid said and crossed his arms, putting on a pouty face.**

** Drago called back his Pikachu and nodded to his brother, signaling for the boy to call his own back as well. ****"****Go get your twin and come back, then maybe you****'****ll be able to beat me.****" ****The little boy growled and ran towards his brother to tackle him but the older boy stepped out of the way and the younger kid tripped.**

** He sniffled and grabbed his leg after falling on the ground, ****"****That hurt,****" ****tears started coming to his eyes and Drago looked at the small bloody cut on his brother****'****s kneecap.**

** "****I****'****ll go get mom,****" ****he assured his crying brother and ran inside the house. **_**Vlad is such a crybaby,**_** "****Mom?****" ****he called out after walking in the house but he received no reply.**

** There were voices coming from the kitchen and Drago walked down the hallway and peeked his head in. He looked at his father who had an arm draped across his mother****'****s shoulder reassuringly. ****"****What are we going to do?****" ****his mom asked in a quiet voice he could barely hear. **

** "****It****'****s alright Mary, we****'****re a small village, no one will come here.****" ****Drago looked in further and saw that the adults were looking down at a newspaper. **

** "****If they do come though, we can****'****t let the kids keep training their pokemon.****" ****The whole region they say! War, in Hoenn! She continued, ****"****Drago is already becoming pretty good,****" ****the boy smiled at the praise when he supposedly wasn****'****t even there but he was confused at what his parents were talking about. ****"****They****'****ll take him away if he****'****s good enough and send him to the battlefield, we can****'****t allow that to happen.****" ****She looked up at her husband who waited a few seconds and then nodded.**

_**Can**__**'**__**t train my pokemon? Take me away? War? **_**Drago ran back down the hallway in a hurry and out the door where he looked around and saw people outside their front doors talking in hushed voices to their neighbors. His brother was playing with a flower on the ground and saw Drago come back without their mom.**

** "****Where****'****s mom?****" ****the kid asked and the two girls who had finished the battle on the other side of the front lawn ran over as well. **

** The eldest child looked at the three of them and frowned. He shook his head and removed the one pokeball from his belt, ****"****For now on,****" **_**It can**__**'**__**t just be for me. If the others are too good they**__**'**__**ll be taken as well, whatever that means,**_** "****No more fighting with our pokemon.****" ****The children looked at him with confused and angry looks.**

** "****You don****'****t get to decide that,****" ****the six year old twin to Vlad stated angrily. Ora continued, ****"****You****'****re not the boss of me.****"**

** The youngest of the group, the four year old girl Ella raised her hand and Drago looked at her, ****"****Why not?****"**

** "****I don****'****t know,****" ****Drago responded truthfully but the look on his face made the other three children very afraid. They heard someone clear their throat from the front door and the blonde boy turned around slowly to see his father standing there with a solemn look on his face. The man****'****s demeanor made all three other children look down at the floor and try to keep from sobbing as they knew Drago had told them the truth.**

**End Flashback**

The boy had his head resting on the ash covered tree for a few minutes before he realized he was going to fall asleep if he kept his head laying there any longer. _Gotta keep moving,_ he started fast walking in a circle around the area where his friends were sleeping.

As he passed by Billy, he saw the kid smiling in his sleep and holding the blanket on top of him tight. _Wonder what he__'__s dreaming about, it seems nice,_ the thirteen year old couldn't remember once in the last five years when he had dreamt without having a nightmare. He looked back through the trees at the ash covered ground and clenched his eyes closed, trying to forget.

**Flashback (5 years ago)**

** "****Heading to the park, I****'****m gonna meet up with Viktor and Uther.****" ****Drago ran to his front door trying to get out as quick as possible.**

** He heard a low voice call to him from the living room, ****"****Bring your brother with you.****" ****Drago groaned and called Vlad****'****s name a few times. The excited boy ran down the stairs and smiled at his brother who wasn****'****t too happy about having to drag his brother with him every time he went out.**

** "****Are we meeting up with Wendy?****" ****The boy asked as they walked down the path away from their house and Drago raised an eyebrow.**

** "****Why do you want to know?****" ****Vlad looked away fast and Drago chuckled, ****"****Do you like her?****" ****he asked in a mock surprise voice.**

** "****What?! She****'****s a girl, girls have cooties,****" ****his big brother shook his head at the little boy who was only a year younger than him. ****"****I just wanted to know if she was going to be there is all,****" ****the boy looked at his feet and Drago tussled his hair. He never disliked hanging with his brother, it just got annoying having to do it every day.**

** They got to the park and Drago saw two kids a little older than him playing catch with a football on the open field. ****"****Hey Drago,****" ****one of them called out and was hit by the brown ball as he turned to wave to his approaching friend.**

** "****Not cool Viktor,****" ****Drago commented as he got there and helped Uther to his feet. The larger boy chortled and pointed to his head, ****"****Always be ready for anything. My dad tells me that every morning,****" ****Drago nodded and picked up the ball, throwing it as fast as he could into the bigger boy****'****s stomach.**

** "****Oof,****" ****Viktor caught the ball but it still knocked the wind out of him. All three of the other boys started laughing and they tossed around the football for close to twenty minutes before Vlad dropped the ball and the others stared at him funny. Viktor waved a hand from his spot in front of the younger boy and shouted, ****"****Earth to baby, you didn****'****t catch it.****"**

** Drago didn****'****t like the way his friend talked to his little brother but he let it slide because Vlad was acting really weird. He watched as the little kid started raising a hand and shaking as he did. Now all three of the others were getting on edge and looked to where the boy was pointing, behind them and above their heads.**

** Uther stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, shaking like a madman while the other three were all frozen still by the sight. The first thing they saw was the flock of birds, giant birds, all circling the forest beneath them and moving closer to the field every second. It was only a few seconds later that the ground started shaking and the boys could literally see the forest moving.**

** "****Tell me I****'****m not the only one seeing this,****" ****Viktor stated and rubbed his eyes. On the far edge of the field the kids saw some pokemon break through the outer edge of the forest. There were hundreds of them, thirty or forty of each type of pokemon they saw. Finally Drago saw a person in the front of the giant army and stared at the man in the white cape with long bluish green hair.**

** "****W-w-we need to get to the village and t-tell everyone,****" ****Uther managed to say through chattering teeth as he turned around and started sprinting towards the path to the village.**

** Drago grabbed his brother by the hand and the two of them chased after their much faster friend down the path. **

** "****Wait up you guys,****" ****Viktor shouted from behind and Drago casted a look back but it only made him more determined not to slow down. An army of quick pokemon were speeding across the field picking up dirt as they did and charging towards the heavy kid who was falling far behind his friends.**

** "****Run Viktor!****" ****he shouted and turned around sprinting faster and making his brother move at the same pace.**

** "****Help! AHHHH!****" ****The larger boy****'****s voice faded from behind them; Drago clenched his eyes shut and felt his brother moving even faster as they cleared the tree line and made it into the clearing that their village was in.**

** "****Everyone! There****'****s an army coming!****" ****Drago started shouting after seeing Uther sprinting up and down the block shouting the same thing. He looked back down the path and didn****'****t see anyone coming behind him, **_**Where**__**'**__**s Viktor?**_** He didn****'****t see any other pokemon either and feeling unnerved he sprinted towards his house.**

** Vlad ran inside first and was already crying as their parents walked up to them. ****"****What happened?****"**

** Drago was panting and couldn****'****t stop thinking about what could have happened to his friend but he looked at his parents and then to his left where his sisters were poking their heads out from the rail of the staircase. ****"****The war is here,****" ****the boy said and his mom gasped taking a step back and using the wall for balance.**

** As he said it, a voice sounded over the entire village. ****"****We****'****ve come to draft any and all pokemon trainers for the assault on Rustboro City. Come peacefully and no one will be harmed.****"**

** The family ran to the window and looked out to see a man in a red sports jacket standing in front of an amassing army of pokemon. Twenty Growlithes stood around him, bird pokemon all over the sky, Drago didn****'****t recognize most of them.**

** "****Get out of our village!****" ****One of the men from the village ran out of his house and threw a rock at the man in the red jacket. A few others stepped out their front doors and yelled at the man as well. The Svenska family stared out their window in sheer terror as the townspeople started going outside and yelling at the man face to face.**

** "****Honey don****'****t,****" ****Mary grabbed her husband by the arm but he shrugged her off.**

** Drago looked up at his father who had a determined look on his face, ****"****They****'****ll take the children,****" ****the woman looked down at her kids and that was all the time her husband needed to slip out the front door and make his way to the crowd in the street.**

** The children all ran back up to the window and stared outside with wide eyes as the people they knew faced off against the man in front of them. He had a black ****'****S****' ****printed on his red jacket and the man never stopped smirking the entire time he faced the crowd of angry people.**

** "****Get out of our town!****" ****Drago****'****s dad yelled and the boy felt proud of his father. **

** The man held up a hand and everyone in front of him slowly quieted down. ****"****If that is your response then I have no choice. If I don****'****t recruit you, the Nimbus will, and our enemies will increase,****" ****some of the citizens were backing up, ****"****Kill everyone in the village, burn it to the ground.****"**

** "****Let****'****s be reasonable,****" ****the eight year old boy****'****s father stepped towards the man but a needle stuck into the left side of his body and he glowed purple. ****"****What the?****" ****he fell to his knees.**

** "****Father!****" ****Drago spun to his right and none of the others in his house had seen Ora get up and run to the front door.**

** "****Stop!****" ****Mary shouted after her daughter and chased her. She looked back before exiting the house, ****"****Protect your siblings.****" ****Drago nodded at her and looked back out at his father who struggled to his feet and removed the needle. At this point the pokemon were all moving forwards towards the village folk and people started running.**

** "****Fight!****" ****A woman screamed and threw her pokeballs in the air. Anyone who wasn****'****t running started fighting but it was instantly clear how mismatched the sides were. The twenty Growlithes attacked as a group, shooting burst after burst of flames into buildings, people, and pokemon alike.**

_**This isn**__**'**__**t happening, it has to be a dream. **_**Drago felt a hand tugging at his pant leg and looked to his left where Ella was tearing up and then looked to his seven year old brother who was staring out the window. ****"****Mom,****" ****the boy mumbled and fell backwards away from the windowsill. The older boy spun his head outside to see what Vlad was talking about and saw Ora shaking their mother as she lay on the ground covered in red. **_**Mom,**_** he was about to run for the door when he felt the little five year old****'****s hand tug on his pant leg again.**

** He made a quick decision, ****"****Go out the back door, I****'****ll be right behind you,****" ****he ran for the front and shot through to the outside. It was madness. He could instantly feel the heat of the fires burning all around him and looked through the smog to where he could see Vlad****'****s twin still on top of their mother****'****s body. ****"****Ora!****" ****the girl looked up and her big blue eyes stared straight into her brother****'****s as he ran from the house.**

** "****Drago,****" ****she muttered and stumbled to her feet, ****"****help me.****" ****As the word left her mouth a giant pillar of fire came out of the sky and enveloped mother and daughter as Drago stood ten yards away. He couldn****'****t even feel the heat he was in so much shock as he stared at the spot where the two of them were before. The fire cleared and nothing remained.**

** The blonde child turned back towards his house and watched as vines started shooting through the windows and doors and tugging in different directions as Bulbasaurs and Bellsprouts tore his house apart. The building crumbled and the enormous noise that sounded knocked the kid to his senses. **_**Focus, Vlad and Ella are still waiting for me.**_** He concentrated and ran over the rubble of his house, holding his pokeball close to him knowing that if he released Pikachu now, his friend wouldn****'****t stand a chance. **_**I should have been training all this time, not hiding like a coward.**_

** The kid got to the backyard which was less covered in smoke and instead it looked like it was snowing. Ashes were falling from the sky as the entire village was now up in flames. ****"****Vlad, Ella! Where are you?****" ****he started coughing and got lower to avoid breathing in as much smoke.**

** "****Ahh!****" ****he heard a little boy****'****s scream and ran in the direction he heard it from. He got into a clearing where his neighbor****'****s back yard was and there wasn****'****t as much smoke back there. His little brother was on his butt, scooting back towards him as a huge bull type pokemon was stamping its feet on the ground angrily.**

** "****Tauros Tauros,****" ****it shouted at the kid and then charged him. **

** "****VLAD!****" ****the older brother sprinted towards the younger kid who squealed and was trampled by the pokemon making Drago fall to his knees and crawl panicking to his little brother. ****"****Stay with me, Vlad please, I****'****m sorry I didn****'****t want to hang out with you,****" ****he was shaking his brother****'****s body but the boy wasn****'****t moving at all.**

** "****Big Bro,****" ****he looked up and saw Ella walking towards him. **

** "****You****'****re okay!****" ****he shot up and ran to her, wrapping her in the tightest hug he could. He lifted the tiny girl in the air, resting her head on his shoulder and started running for the tree line, unfortunately, he couldn****'****t see it and knee he should have reached it already. All the trees around the village were on fire too and the amount of ash covering the ground made it look like the entire village was coated in a few inches of snow.**

** "****Where****'****s Ora?****" ****the girl asked sadly and her older brother just held her tighter as he clenched his eyes, the look on Ora****'****s face as she extended a hand for him to take, fresh in his mind. **

** "****Just hold on,****" ****Drago continued running before hearing a low growl to his right. He turned slowly and saw a large brown rat pokemon glaring at him and his sister. **_**There**__**'**__**s no way we outrun it,**_** he lowered Ella to the ground slowly and turned to her, ****"****I want you to run as fast as you can in that direction and then wait for me once you are far enough away.****" ****The girl was crying but she nodded and started running as fast as her little legs could take her.**

** "****Pikachu come out,****" ****the little yellow mouse appeared and glared at the Raticate which charged them. ****"****Use quick attack,****" ****the boy****'****s pokemon was much faster and could dodge most of Raticate****'****s heavy hitting attacks. ****"****One more time, use thundershock,****" ****the bigger rat was zapped and fell on the ground unconscious. ****"****Great, come back,****" ****he pulled back his friend and ran, finally seeing the tree line in front of him.**

** The noises in the village were dying down and he couldn****'****t hear much fighting going on anymore. ****"****Ella,****" ****he whispered as he walked around the edge of the trees. **_**Maybe she**__**'**__**s further in,**_** he wandered around the forest edge for minutes, which became hours, soon he couldn****'****t hear any more noise coming from his home town but the ash kept falling from the sky.**

** He decided to go check if she was back in the village looking for him and he walked back onto his neighbor****'****s back lawn. The ash clouds were thinning out and there wasn****'****t as much smoke any longer, so when Drago saw an outline in a spot he hadn****'****t seen one earlier, he ran straight towards it. ****"****No no no no,****" ****the size of the person laying in the ashes was exactly that of his youngest sister. He dove down and lifted her from beneath the ashes, immediately seeing the three lines cut into the back of her shirt where she must****'****ve been slashed. **_**Please God no,**_** he lifted her face and shook the girl but got no reply, ****"****Ella?****" ****he asked quietly and put his face on her chest, ****"****Please Ella, get up.****"**

**End Flashback**

"It's over," he said to himself and sat down on the ground, calming himself down and looking to see if the others had been watching him. He was sweating like crazy as he stared at a lump in the ashes but the lump moved and a Zigzagoon started moving away before laying back down and starting to get covered in ash again.

_I should tell Lucy and Billy... or at least just Lucy. She already knows something because of what she heard so I need to clear it up with her._ The boy looked over and panicked before realizing what had happened and calming down. He walked over and brushed ash off of the two sleeping bodies, making them more visible so he wouldn't lose them again.

_How did he know my name?_

**Flashback (4 1/2 years ago)**

** "****Kid wake up, kid!****" ****Drago started screaming and jumped to his feet, putting his hands over his pokeball to protect his best friend. He was wearing the same clothes he left his village six months ago in, and they were really beaten up. ****"****What are you doing out here?****" ****the boy was backing away from the teenager in front of him and thought about turning and running when he heard another voice behind him.**

** "****Whoa, who is this?****" ****The older teenager reached down and lifted the kid up by the scruff of the neck, ****"****What****'****s your name?****"**

** "****Drago,****" ****he paused and glared at the boy looking back at him, ****"****that****'****s all.****"**

** "****Kid doesn****'****t even have a last name,****" ****the one who woke him up laughed. ****"****Let****'****s bring him back to the city.****" ****Drago looked at the boy holding him and the oldest boy nodded.**

** "****I****'****m Terrence, you****'****re with me now.****"**

**End Flashback**

Drago was smiling again and leaned against a tree closing his eyes and reminiscing about his time in Rustboro. It wasn't long before he heard rustling behind him and spun around with a fist outstretched. Lucy stood five feet back and stared at the extended arm before shaking her head and pushing it to the side, "That wouldn't have even broken someone's nose. This is what you want to do..."

"Whoa, whoa, show me on the tree," the girl holding a fist towards him laughed and demonstrated on the tree.

Her hit left a fist shaped indent on the bark and Drago was happy she didn't use it on him first. "Get some rest," she told him, "you've had a tough day."

"Thanks," he responded and went over to the area Lucy was lying before. It had the least amount of ash on the floor and he took the spot, lying on the dirt until he felt comfortable and then passing out.

**A/n Thank you Wiz300 for reminding me I forgot to update XD sorry about that. Don****'****t want to disappoint but we****'****ve had a bunch of wrestling meets all week and a tournament that lasted all day today. The season is winding to a close in a couple of weeks, plus I****'****ve got midterms next week, so I might slow down on the updates ;(. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and tell me what you think below!**


	21. Chapter 21

Pokewars hiatus

I'm sorry but this morning water spilled on my laptop and now it's broken with repairs costing 750$. This sucks, a lot, and I lost my next three chapters of Pokewars right as I was starting the twenty fourth. Hopefully I get it fixed within the next few weeks but until then I'll be on my backup computer that doesn't have great word processing. Sorry again, bye.


End file.
